Timmy Dooley (Fianna Fail)

I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Treacy. He is filling in for the Minister, Deputy Brennan, and the Minister of State, Deputy McDaid, who are chairing a Council of Ministers meeting in Brussels. It is an important meeting which deals with the open skies issue, which is currently under discussion between the European Union and the United States. We send them our best wishes in that regard. As Senators are aware, the open skies issue, which is of benefit to the country, has given rise to concern, especially in the west of Ireland. I am sure the Minister of State, Deputy Treacy, shares those concerns in regard to Shannon Airport and the western region. We await the outcome of the discussions with bated breath.

As previous speakers' outlined, the principal purpose of the Bill is to ratify the Montreal Convention and give it the full force of Irish law. It updates the Warsaw Convention and the various amendments that have taken place since the Warsaw Convention was agreed in 1929.

Senator Browne rightly referred to the vast changes that have taken place in the area of aviation since that time, especially in recent years with the advent of low fares and other developments. The Warsaw Convention is not a matter we have dealt with in great detail or one that we need be concerned with on a daily basis. However, when we are bored on a flight we may decide to read some of the fine print on the back of our airline tickets where one usually finds details relating to the liability of the carrier. Flying at 37,000 or 38,000 feet one may discover the scant liability of an airline in the event of an accident or, as frequently happens, when one's bag does not appear and is never found or if it is damaged.

As the Minister of State said, the Montreal Convention updates many of the terms and conditions of the Warsaw Convention. The liability of airlines is important, especially in regard to our own person and the concerns we have about accidents which might take place while we are on board an aircraft.

Nobody is overly concerned about who is liable in the event of a major accident because those involved are generally not alive to worry about it. However, there is a concern that those who have non-fatal accidents outside the jurisdiction might not have sufficient finances to take care of their medical expenses. Permanent loss of one's baggage or damage to goods must also be considered.

I welcome the provisions on cargo in the Bill. Much worldwide trade is now about just-in-time delivery of goods. Trade used to be of a much less advanced nature and shipping took place over a prolonged period. Many goods nowadays, particularly hardware and software for the IT industry, require just-in-time delivery. As the Minister of State outlined, updating the conventions will allow for much speedier delivery of goods between the exporter, the baggage handlers and those at the delivery point. This is a welcome development and will ensure that trade will be facilitated by electronic means.

If one believes increased liability on air carriers means there is no longer a necessity to have travel insurance, one should note that travel insurance is a very important part of air travel. It is not just to cover any medical problems a passenger might have, either as a result of an accident or falling ill while out of one's jurisdiction, but also to cover the loss of personal baggage or damage thereto. My experience of travel over many years has shown there is a very good range of insurance products on the market, of which passengers should make themselves aware. It is only as a last resort that one should be depending on the conditions as set down in this legislation and the conventions. It is vital that people still continue to take out travel insurance to protect against the aforementioned eventualities.

It has been made clear that all airlines we refer to as First World airlines already have sufficient insurance to cover their liabilities. I understand that they retain insurance against a liability of about €1 billion. However, the purpose of this Bill and the conventions is to bring into line Third World airlines that do not cover themselves to this extent. Principally, it is about the extension of the higher liability limits to airlines worldwide, thus providing very significant benefits for passengers travelling with certain non-EU airlines.

Although many Third World airlines are not flying to Ireland or Europe, this will obviously change as business develops between Europe and the countries in which those airlines are based in the coming years. It is important to bear this in mind because air travel is increasing outside the EU and between the EU and Third World countries. Many Third World countries are emerging from the depths of a depression and poor economic circumstances and are growing by way of many of the many economic development programmes initiated by First World countries, thus resulting in an increase in air travel. The conventions ensure that the Third World airlines will put in place the necessary finance to ensure their liability is covered in all circumstances.

We are all familiar with the international growth in tourism and business links. India, for example, has experienced high growth in its IT industry. The net effect of the business generated by India's measures to ensure its education system produces graduates highly skilled in the development of computer software is an increase in the frequency of air travel and, ultimately, of cargo transfer between India, Europe and the United States.

This effect is also evident in respect of the increased manufacturing trade between Europe, America and China. The manufacturing industry in China is partly operating to the detriment of manufacturing throughout Europe but it will bring about an increase in air travel. Therefore, it is important that this legislation is in place. It serves as further recognition of what is referred to as the global village and the fact that certain parts of the world, although they might have been considered well outside the remit of the First World, have generated business through the development of trade links and through their manufacturing base, albeit using cheaper labour.

Air travel has certainly changed significantly in recent years. We spoke of this last week when the Aer Lingus Bill was passing through the House and we recognised that low fares and no-frills services are very much a part of passenger travel. It is important that these phenomena are not operating at the expense of safety. By putting in place the proposed legislative measures, we will ensure there will be a level playing pitch in terms of the insurance liability of airlines, in which case it will not be possible for some airlines to have a much poorer safety record than others. We would all welcome this.

Baggage handling is an important part of air travel and it is important to ensure that airlines are largely responsible for the protection of one's goods while travelling. Thus, there would be fair competition between all airlines, even in a low-fares, no-frills environment.

The Warsaw system was good and while it needed updating it certainly provided for air travel to date. This Bill will take account of the recent amendments that have been made. There are two European regulations covering this area, one of which came into force in 1997 and the other in 2002. As Senator Browne stated, all the airlines operating in the European Union were already subject to the rules in this regard. However, they will now be enshrined in European law.

As the Minister of State has outlined, under section 11 the relevant provisions of the current law, namely the Air Navigation and Transport Act 1936, as amended, are repealed, allowing one Bill to cover the entire subject. This should be welcomed in the House. Legal practitioners, politicians and many of those who must consider Bills before amendments are made will welcome this. As Bills are amended over a number of years, following the changes can be quite tedious and therefore it is good that the Department of Transport has sought to consolidate all the legislation in this area. I hope the legal people in the courts, who often like to tell us what to do, will compliment the Department on its efforts in this regard.

I also welcome the provision that makes it easier for passengers to bring a legal action in their principal country of residence, referred to as the fifth jurisdiction. There were four places in which one could take a case, namely, the place of business of the airline, the place of an accident if it related to an accident, the point of origin of the passenger or the goods and the intended destination if the goods arrived. It is important to allow passengers or companies to whose goods it relates to take the case in their own countries. When we deal with Third World countries whose legal systems are very different from ours and from those of the First World in general, it is important that a level of good governance is put in place to ensure the credibility of the efforts made.

It is important on procedural grounds that if all members of the EU have ratified the convention by 1 May it will automatically extend to the ten accession countries. We know how necessary it is to pass legislation to ensure that we comply with many EU conditions and if we can assist our friends in the accession countries we should attempt to do so. We on this side of the House intend to get this Bill through as quickly as possible. I thank Senator Browne for his efforts in that regard. I see Senator McDowell here although I have not yet heard him speak but I hope he will not delay the Bill in any way.