Timmy Dooley (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for being with us. At this juncture it would be right to recognise the front-line workers in the transport sector working in both public and private companies who have heroically continued with their duties over the past couple of months. It is often forgotten that they are a key part of the front-line effort and worked so diligently.

There is no doubt that Covid-19 has wreaked havoc across the economy, none more so than in the transport sector. Twelve or 13 months ago we thought problems would emanate from Brexit and that the inability to trade goods between North and South and east and west would be the biggest challenges of the aviation sector. Unfortunately, that has paled into insignificance. Covid-19 has devastated hundreds of businesses and tens of thousands of jobs and livelihoods across the aviation sector. Undoubtedly, aviation has been the worst affected sector in terms of size and scale of operations and the livelihoods that have been impacted as a result of the job losses and very significantly reduced incomes, which has caused enormous anxiety and stress in many homes across the country.

Passenger activity through our airports is running at a fraction of normal levels. Every business in the sector is haemorrhaging money, notwithstanding the very significant State supports available, which are welcome but are not enough or not necessary to save the businesses through this prolonged period. Sadly, the optimism of last autumn with the expectation that by early this year we would be into the opening up of foreign travel has faded. Unfortunately, the chance of foreign travel happening any time this year will be very limited. That has put further pressure on the businesses and the communities across the aviation sector.

There is no doubt that the biggest challenge for our country, as an island nation that depends on connectivity and supports a tourism business across the economy that employs between 150,000 and 250,000 people, is the protection of that connectivity. We need to retain key routes from all our airports to ensure we have a base on which to restart the activity. The best estimates suggest that we will not be getting back to 2019 passenger numbers until 2024.

In protecting key routes it is important that we do not look only to Dublin. We have got to protect routes into Shannon, Cork and other airports but Shannon, which is the airport I know best, supports the economic, tourism and business activity across the mid-west and the west. It is important that continued funding be provided not just for capital projects but also for the ongoing maintenance and operations of the airport. We have to keep these businesses effectively on life support until we get back to a level of normality, whatever that might be, but we will get to that point. We will get to the other side but the airport workers, airline workers and all those in the ancillary businesses who have dedicated their lives to the development of businesses and to supporting the tourism sector attached to the aviation business now need our support and the State should not be found wanting in that regard.

There is no doubt that our airlines are in very significant financial straits. Looking at some of the statistics, approximately 20 airlines across the EU got state support last year. Countries like Denmark, which is around the same size as Ireland, gave SAS €583 million. Finnair got €286 million from the Finnish Government. In terms of the bigger airlines, France provided Air France with €7 billion. Germany gave Lufthansa €9 billion. Belgian Airlines got €290 million and the Netherlands gave KLM €3.4 billion.I believe the State will have to put its shoulder behind the airlines and take a strategic shareholding in Aer Lingus and Ryanair, if necessary, to ensure their continued commitment to this country. I am not, as some might suggest, talking about nationalising these airlines. It is about taking a strategic interest at the right time to protect connectivity and, over time, that shareholding can be factored back into the marketplace when we return to a more normalised environment. We did the same thing for the pillar banks when we had a financial crisis in that the State stepped in to protect our banking system and banking sector. I believe now is the time for the State to look very seriously at taking a strategic interest in airlines, if necessary, and other airline-associated businesses to ensure they are there to protect the economy that this sector supports when we start to build our way out of this.

Although it is not directly related to transport and relates instead to people who are impacted by the pandemic, I believe the Government is going to have to hold the feet of the banks to the fire again. They got support in the past and that was the right thing for the economy. However, I am certainly hearing from people who have lost their jobs and who are on very reduced incomes as a result of Covid, particularly in the aviation sector, that banks are not really engaging in terms of the moratorium. The reality for many people is that the rainy day fund is gone, savings are gone and moneys that were put aside to educate kids have been used just to sustain life over the past 12 months, yet the banks are still pressurising people, where there were moratoriums on loans and mortgages, to try to find some non-existent source of these moneys. These people are hard-working and have always shown a commitment to repaying their debts, and they will do so again. They just need a little time to get through this.

On the issue of e-scooters, I understand there are proposals to bring legislation to the House and the Minister might clarify when he hopes to do that. It is a method of decarbonising our transport systems in a micro-way, but it is also a personalised mode of transport during this pandemic crisis that gives a social distance to people who want to commute.