Paul Gavan (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

It is nice to see the Minister of State. She is always welcome here. I hope she will not take it badly when I say we were told last week that her colleague, the Minister, Deputy Ryan, would come to the House. I am conscious I have given the Minister of State a hard time on many occasions on this subject, so I would not mind giving the Minister a hard time as well. However, it cannot happen. I appreciate what the Minister of State said today and I certainly welcome the pilot programme for antigen testing. Incidentally, I do not believe antigen testing will be a big part of the solution. I was on a flight four weeks ago and everybody on the aeroplane was tested on arrival. It turned out afterwards that the flight resulted in a host of people with the Delta variant of Covid-19 from that journey, so there are no simple solutions for this. However, antigen testing has a role to play.

It will not surprise the Minister of State that I want to talk about Shannon Airport. There is massive frustration. Other Members have referred to the loss of the cabin crew base. I recall more than 12 months ago when a host of representatives from the mid-west met the Aer Lingus staff. They warned us then what was coming down the line if action was not taken. A Government had not been formed at that point, but assurances were given by public representatives, I believe in good faith, that once a Government was formed, there would be some type of strategic plan to save those jobs. Of course, it would have been much easier to do that if the last stake in Aer Lingus had not been privatised, but we could spend hours discussing the mistakes made previously in aviation policy. My point is that 12 months later nothing was done about securing those Aer Lingus jobs and we have now lost the cabin crew base and 81 jobs at Shannon Airport.

The aviation task force has been mentioned. I support the calls for the recommendations of the task force to be implemented. Recommendation No. 2 relating to the app and for it to include all relevant, up-to-date travel information for Ireland and for Irish citizens travelling abroad has not been implemented. The recommendation regarding comprehensive test, track and trace, which could have included antigen testing, is certainly not fully implemented at this point. A national code of practice for safe air travel in alignment with the European Aviation Safety Agency has not been implemented, nor has a common fixed sum per passenger for Cork, Shannon, Ireland West, Kerry and Donegal airports been implemented. I could go on. What frustrates us in the mid-west in particular is that when the Minister, Deputy Ryan, was asked last week what his response was to the ongoing crisis in Shannon Airport, he said he was going to establish another task force. He has not implemented the recommendations from this task force.

What is even more puzzling is that, last August, the Minister, Deputy Ryan, declared he was carrying out a review of the Shannon Group. We thought that was great, that finally somebody was going to take a look at this and put a strategic plan in place. That was on 9 August last, but nobody in this Chamber, with the possible exception of the Minister of State, knows what has happened to that review. Nothing has been said to us. Nearly a year later, the recommendations of the aviation task force have not been implemented and none of us knows what has become of the internal departmental review. Furthermore, there was an excellent, all-party Oireachtas committee report. I see colleagues in the Chamber who played a key role in producing that report. There were 20 recommendations and I will quote the last two, because they have a direct bearing on what we are discussing here. Recommendation No. 19 states: "That a new national aviation policy must be developed and given priority by Government, setting out a co-ordinated national approach to ensure balanced recovery and growth across the aviation sector".As Senator Buttimer said, we must reposition the aviation sector. That key recommendation but has not been implemented.

Recommendation No. 20 is: "Recognising the very significant shock to the aviation sector, the Committee recommends the re-establishment of a State Airports Authority, encompassing Dublin, Shannon and Cork airports, to lead the recovery in a balanced way".That is what we could have been doing over the last 12 months and I am at a complete loss as to why those actions have not been undertaken. It is highly significant because we had a disagreement last October when I tabled a motion on setting up a new national State airport authority to encompass Shannon Airport and end the silly position of having it as a separate airport competing against Dublin Airport, which is a competition it could never win. Since then, all parties have agreed, through the transport committee on these recommendations. Now all parties, including representatives from the Minister of State's party, have called for the re-integration of Shannon Airport into the new national State airport authority, yet nothing has been done. The people of Clare, Limerick and the mid-west are at a complete loss when they see the aviation sector in crisis that nothing strategic has been done and we are losing time. We will see a recovery but in the meantime nothing has been done to address the fact that 95% of aeroplanes leave from the east coast. We see what has happened in other countries. In the Netherlands, a cap applies to the country's key airport to ensure regional balance takes place. In Ireland, despite a review, an excellent all-party Oireachtas committee report and an aviation task force, none of the key issues has been tackled.

What is worse is there is now a real worry about 500 jobs in Lufthansa Technik. Last week, when the Minister for Transport, Deputy Eamon Ryan, was asked whether he had been in contact with the company, his response was that he had been talking to people in the local area. What does that even mean?

Perhaps the Minister can tell us whether he or his Department has been in direct contact with Lufthansa Technik where 500 jobs are at risk. There is talk of a sale, perhaps in a month, according to a report published in The Irish Times. These are key, valuable jobs that we cannot afford to lose. I get the impression, and I am not talking about the Minister of State, that the Department is not up to speed in terms of taking urgent action to save jobs, protect Shannon Airport and the jobs it supports and protect the mid-west economy.

This Government will not be forgiven for failing to act on Shannon Airport. I call on the Minister to take action, implement the recommendations and provide a clear, positive answer today.