David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein)

In fact, the only funding that was given from the Government this year was to buy out the contract of the company that actually did the work on the preferred route. There are real concerns that this vital road is now being put on hold. The Waterford to Limerick road really needs to be improved. Deputy Conor McGuinness and I, and all the Oireachtas Members from across the affected counties, will continue to raise this to ensure that it gets proper funding next year.

Today, we are here to raise very important issues about workers whose bravery goes above and beyond the call of duty. These are our air search and rescue crews. We saw that recently in a tragedy in Waterford when an aircraft crashed just outside Waterford airport. Unfortunately, there was a fatality. The air search and rescue service was on the scene very quickly. These are crew members who work 24-hour shifts. They are required to be on site and remain on base for the full 24 hours. At any moment, they can be called to be deployed. They are in a state of immediate preparedness and have to respond, sometimes in a matter of minutes, and they do. We saw that last week.

Bizarrely, the Irish Aviation Authority and, by extension, the Government do not recognise their full 24 hours as work time. In fact, one quarter of the time they do as part of these 24-hour shifts is bizarrely labelled as standby time or rest time. That is clearly not the case. We are asking the Government to listen to the concerns that have been raised by the representative trade union and by crew members whom Deputy Conor McGuinness and I met over the course of the past few weeks. They are raising very genuine safety and fatigue issues. We ask the Government to intervene and that the Irish Aviation Authority ensure they are fully compliant with the European working time directive for these vital workers.

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