Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The proposed unit is in the Government’s strategy but we have not set it up yet, so we will not know how it will work. Given that the MCIB and the air accident investigation unit already exist in my Department, there is a fair amount of competence and skill in place as to how this unit might do its work. I would envisage it would be a similar process to the MCIB and air accident investigations in that an investigation would be carried out, a report written up and interested parties, such as families of people killed in a collision, would see the report first. It would then go to the Minister who would publish it. It could take two or three years but, unfortunately, that is the nature of this process.

As I told the Dáil before coming here today, the air accident investigation unit of my Department has made 11 recommendations to different bodies, not just the Spanish authorities but also the International Civil Aviation Organisation, ICAO, the European Commission and the European Aviation Safety Agency, EASA. I believe there is a lot to be learned from the crash that occurred in Cork, given there were a lot of unusual circumstances around it, particularly this whole concept of a virtual airline that does not actually exist in the way that we understand an airline to exist but is a kind of ticket selling system with everything outsourced to somebody else. There are other issues, of course, in terms of training, pilot experience, flight time and so on, so there is a lot to be learned from this investigation.

What is useful about it is that the law is behind us on this one in that it is required under the law that all of the agencies that have had recommendations made to them must respond within 90 days. Therefore, it is not that these things end up on a shelf. Eleven recommendations were made to four or five different bodies and they must, by law, respond within 90 days. The air accident investigation unit will monitor the progress of the implementation of those recommendations.