Malcolm Byrne (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State to the House. I had the good fortune to speak to her about ports this morning and am pleased to speak to her about airports this afternoon. I share some of my colleagues' concerns about us no longer having a stake in Aer Lingus at this crucial time. I would remind Senator Moynihan, however, that the Labour Party supported the sale of the airline. Indeed, the party lost its Deputy for Clare over the sale of Aer Lingus. Another issue at the time concerned the price that was paid. The value of Aer Lingus was significantly higher when the IAG group took it over.

I want to concentrate on our current challenges in terms of aviation policy. As an island, we are very much dependent on connectivity by sea and air. We are an open economy with a strong emphasis on tourism so we must maximise connectivity through shipping routes and airline connections. Airports in recent years in Ireland have been particularly successful at expanding routes and increasing passenger numbers. In the last 20 years the airline industry has been hit by three big crises. After the 9/11 crisis there were issues around safety and people wanting to be certain it was safe to fly; in Asia the SARS crisis was a public health crisis which inhibited flying in that region; and after the financial crisis there were issues around the affordability of flying and the viability of airlines. The reality is that the aviation sector is now facing all three of those challenges at the same time. This does not even take into account the challenges mentioned by Senator Garvey around climate change and Brexit. While there are projections from the industry that we will see a bounce back, with short haul bouncing back by around 2023 and long haul bouncing back by around 2025, in reality medium term capacity is going to be down by about 20% to 25%.

The Government set up a task force on aviation which made a number of very solid recommendations. I would like the Minister of State to outline in her response how far the Government has got in responding to the recommendations in the July report of the task force which was chaired by Mr. Chris Horn. One of the key issues, as Senator Gavan and others said, is track and trace and I would cite Keflavik Airport in Reykjavik as being particularly successful in this regard. Frankfurt and other airports have also been successful. How far have we got in terms of ensuring that we have an effective track and trace regime at Irish airports?

We need to instill confidence in people to get them flying again. I welcome the fact that we are finally moving to the EU-wide traffic light system because the current system is a joke. The green list, quite frankly, makes absolutely no sense. Liechtenstein is currently on our green list. I have been there and it is a lovely country but there is no airport there. One can only get to Liechtenstein via Switzerland or Austria, neither of which is on the green list. Damage is also being done to our reputation. If, for example, Portugal has Ireland on its green list but we do not have Portugal on ours, that damages our reputation. The sooner we move to a common EU green list that makes sense the better.

A question that will have to be faced at a European level, with a Europe-wide approach, is that of subsidising passengers in order to encourage people to fly again. If we do not get passengers back flying, the next step will be bailing out the airports. Our airports are profitable but only when they have passengers. We have got to look at ways of increasing the number of passengers moving through airports.While Brexit was mentioned by the Minister of State, she did not deal with one issue of major concern, which is the fact that UK will not be subject to state aid rules after 1 January 2021. We can forget about the British Conservative party in the era of Margaret Thatcher; the Johnson Government is very much about bailing out industries, particularly in areas with marginal Conservative seats. There is no doubt that it will pump money into supporting industries in trouble, including airports. At a time we are looking to maintain routes, never mind increasing them, Irish airports are going to be competing with airports in Manchester, Birmingham and elsewhere in the UK. At the same time, the UK will not be subject to state aid rules and the British Government will pump money into those airports. It is going to be increasingly difficult. Colleagues mentioned transatlantic routes but if the UK Government starts to bail out airports, we need to put supports in place. I look forward to the Minister of State's response on that.

Finally, the aviation task force made a number of useful recommendations and I am interested to know how they are being implemented. We need both a short-term and long-term strategy in aviation policy.