Barry Ward (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Cuirim fáilte roimh an Aire Stáit. This week I met representatives of the ITAA.They are very much involved with selling aviation sector products in the Irish market not just with holidays and leisure travel but also with regard to the business market and the essential travellers we heard about earlier. They have had an incredibly difficult period over the past year, as everybody understands, but in 2021 and post-Brexit, the ITAA members - the Irish travel agents based in Ireland, employing Irish people and regulated by Irish and European law - are competing with British travel agents who are members of ABTA, the corresponding organisation in the United Kingdom. There is no difficulty with that.

The difficulty arises insofar as many ABTA travel agents working here in Ireland are trading under EU domain names. Although they are regulated by British law and no longer subject to important European consumer legislation like the package holidays directive, they trade here under what is essentially an Irish moniker. It is not clear to me, and I am not sure it is clear to many consumers, that those travel agents are not as well bonded as the ITAA travel agents and they are not regulated by European directives. As we hope to return some time late this year to more normalised aviation and travel conditions, we should look at the possibility of mounting a public information campaign to ensure Irish consumers know when they are booking a travel agent whether it is an Irish travel agent bonded by ITAA, which has extremely high protection for consumers and is subject to European legislation with the package holidays directive. Again, it provides a fine layer of protection for consumers in this jurisdiction. Consumers should know if they are dealing with that kind of travel agent or one outside the European Union, albeit with an Irish Internet address or an office in Dublin. Who is regulating them? We must mount a public information campaign to ensure consumers know what they are getting when they buy a package. That is a bit away from us now. I wish to be associated with the comments of my colleagues, particularly with respect to the airline industry as a whole and the difficulties it faces.

In the time I have left I will raise a matter that is also pertinent to the Minister of State's portfolio. Driver licences have been mentioned and I have been contacted by a young man in Goatstown who has not yet sat his driving test and clearly cannot do so. More important, he has not finished the driving lessons he is required to take before being entitled to sit his driving test. His father works and his mother is unable to drive because of disability but he is an essential worker. He must get the bus to work and he has told me he is very uncomfortable getting the bus in current circumstances. Is there anything we can do for people like him or in that type of position? We can use taxis and taxi drivers have put in place screens for protection, etc. Could that also be done for driving instructors? If that is not possible, I presume there are people in the house who could teach this man to drive, so could we forgo the requirement for new drivers to go through lessons? If people pass the driving test, they must have achieved a certain level of skill.

I have always supported the regime that requires a certain number of driving lessons as it is a good idea. It is progress. However, in the current environment we have an essential worker who is uncomfortable taking public transport and who does not have other options but is ready to sit his test. Could we do something to facilitate him or others in the same position?