Gerard Craughwell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State to the House. It is a great honour to have a fellow Galwegian here. I am sure Galway is very proud of Deputy Naughton's elevation to a ministerial post. We are very lucky to have someone of her talent taking on the job.

Covid-19 has devastated the international air transport industry, but it has also highlighted some of the grave errors in transport policy that have been made in recent times. I remember sitting in this Chamber when we were discussing selling off Aer Lingus. My colleague at the time, the then Senator Sean Barrett, was devastated that we were selling off the national airline. It is even more devastating to find that our two national airlines, Ryanair and Aer Lingus, began this crisis cash-rich and will finish it cash-poor. That will impact airline transport and connectivity in this country for aeons to come.

The other gaping hole in transportation policy is the lack of local representation on the boards of airports and harbours. The people on the ground know what is happening and can see the needs of local communities. Those needs are discussed by Deputies and Senators in these Houses when they should be debated and worked on by county councils. These things are becoming clear as this crisis goes on.

The Minister of State also mentioned our indebtedness to the pilots and crew who flew to China to bring PPE back to this country. I am extremely grateful to them and very proud of the work they did. However, the downside of that story is the fact that our Defence Forces are one of the few armed forces in Europe with no heavy airlift capacity. For our Air Corps to be left without that capacity is a crime. We contract out air ambulance services. Perhaps we should look at these issues right now and see how we can use our resources to overcome them.

There are two aspects to the aviation supports we are talking about. We have to maintain the airline companies I have been speaking about and the air leasing capacity for which this country has built a phenomenal international reputation. However, as a former trade union leader my heart must be with the workers on the ground, who have seen their incomes slashed and see no prospect of returning to any kind of work in the future.Their situation is no different to that of any of the workers in the hospitality industry who have been laid off but some of these people were earning massive sums as pilots and so on and suddenly find themselves on €300 a week. The airline sector is suffering desperately and the workers within it are suffering even more. I welcome Senator Dooley's suggestion of offering alternative employment commensurate with the Covid crisis, such as employment in contact tracing and so on. Perhaps we can look at something in that regard.

We need to maintain routes. If that means sending an empty aircraft once a week on some of the routes that are not now being serviced, perhaps that is something we should do. Perhaps we could look outside the box. I was speaking to my colleague, Senator Byrne, about opening direct routes from Rosslare, Cork and Waterford to the heart of Europe. While we wait for that to happen, there may be an opportunity to replicate what happened in Berlin in the 1960s and organise a direct airlift into Europe. We could utilise aircraft that are sitting on the ground to support the import and export industry and to build new routes in that respect which do not include the United Kingdom because we are clearly going to have difficulties going through that jurisdiction. As we speak about strategic connectivity, we have an opportunity to fly directly into the heart of Europe to facilitate imports and exports. We should look at this rather than leaving aircraft on the ground.

I wish the recovery task force well but we are dealing with an open-ended crisis. Nobody knows when it will end. I acknowledge that the Minister of State is putting in place a team, which will be up to speed and ready to grab any opportunity that arises to get the airline industry up and running as quickly as possible. I appreciate her commitment to what she is doing.

I agree with Senator Dooley. We have all seen comments on social media asking why we did not lock down Ireland, close all the ports and so on. At the end of the day, we cannot afford to lock down the country. We need some sort of connectivity with the rest of the world, although it must be as safe as possible. I would, however, like to see testing at airports improved. The other day, I was talking to people who had arrived back from Greece and I was rather shocked. As they came through the airport, they were given some advice with respect to isolation but they have not been contacted since coming back to find out if they are okay or whether they have a high temperature or anything like that. We have a bit of work to do on that side. We also need rapid testing on site. Tests for Covid are now coming online, which we need to examine. We need to see if we can get access to those tests and use them.

I see what is happening in the tourism industry and the impact the airline industry's situation is having on it. I had great respect for what was happening in Cork in particular. Cork Airport was dynamic in driving initiatives. I am not from Cork and I have no geographical interest in it other than that it is part of this island. The work being done in Cork has been crashed into the ground as a result of Covid. For many years we have been listening to people speaking about the work being done at Shannon Airport. Again, Covid has set the airport back ten years or perhaps more.

It is a matter of supporting and coming in behind the industry and putting in all of the resources that are required. I want to see aircraft in the air and I believe that, in looking at the idea of air routes for imports and exports, there is an opportunity to get people in the airline industry back to work and paid decent salaries. I ask the Minister of State to look at the idea and to discuss it with her Cabinet colleagues to see if there is a way in which these routes could be looked at. One of the problems with the land bridge, should Brexit go wrong, will be getting perishable goods to the heart of Europe in a short time. As goods are delivered over there, I am sure others could come back. We import flowers from Holland, for example. While it might be an expensive way to do business, at least it would keep people employed in the industry, particularly pilots who need to keep their flying hours up. It is important to keep them in the air. I also refer to the service staff, the maintenance staff and the airport staff.I ask the Minister of State to go back to her Department and to the Cabinet and to suggest that we look outside the box to see how we can get more aircraft in the air and more people flying. I thank the Minister of State again. I am sure Galway is proud to have her sitting here.