Timmy Dooley (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

As the Minister of State knows, the aviation sector has been decimated by Covid-19. While the roll-out of the vaccine is making wonderful progress and, for most people, the end of the pandemic is in sight, unfortunately, it is not so for the aviation sector. Its global foundations have been rocked to the core. The sector, quite frankly, feels abandoned by this Government. Towards the end of last week, we had a situation where Stobart Air indicated it was going into liquidation. That is having a very significant impact on connectivity and on the nearly 500 people who work for the company. With regard to Lufthansa Technik, based on media reports over the weekend there is an indication that it is having a strategic review of operations at Shannon Airport. Given approximately 500 people are working in that operation, there are real concerns in the sector. This comes on the back of Aer Lingus recently announcing the closure of the cabin crew base at Shannon Airport, with no idea or indication of when it is going to reinstate routes to London Heathrow, Boston and New York, all of which very important routes for balanced regional development, inward investment and connectivity.

For a country so dependent on aviation for connectivity and jobs, it seems absurd that we have the most restrictive regulations and travel restrictions in Europe. The failure to endorse rapid antigen testing is ridiculous, in my view, and is preventing people and the sector from having any kind of meaningful recovery. The delay in rolling out the EU digital Covid certificate to 19 July is hard to fathom when we consider the vast majority of countries across Europe are rolling it out from 1 July. There is a failure by the Government to engage meaningfully with airports and airlines and to set out a strategy setting out a clear funding model to support and underpin strategic routes while passenger numbers take time to recover, as they will, and to get back to a point where they are profitable and sustainable again. I appeal to the Minister of State to get the Government to implement this action plan.