Pauline O'Reilly (Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I will not take eight minutes. I am in a part of the country in Galway West in the Minister of State's constituency that does not have an airport. There is no part of the country that is not impacted by what is happening in the airline industry. This Bill is quite technical. Its objective is to address recommendations around regulation and it does that. People are quite rightly raising other concerns and matters they believe could be included in this Bill or will come before us in other legislation, which is correct.

I would like to touch on four issues. First, as a Green Party member, I believe we must take seriously the impact of the aviation sector on climate change. I would like the Minister of State when summing up to address how we can tackle that. Obviously, there are global responsibilities but we also have responsibilities as a nation. Although it is not covered by this Bill, we cannot speak about aviation and not talk about its impact on the environment.

The second issue I wish to touch on is consumers. Much of what the Bill provides is consumer protection. We have all probably been inundated with stories of people who do not have the kind of protection they need. I will not say they are monopolies but certainly there is a small number of operators in the airline industry. This impacts on workers and consumers. I hope that when we have that independent regulation this will all be addressed.

Third, Deputy Dooley raised some points about safety concerns.People have been receiving some of that correspondence. We are all on notice, including the Department, and, therefore, this has to be addressed. It is not for us to look into the detail of it but, given that we are on notice, it is incumbent on us all to look into that issue for those workers. They must be protected for their own sake as workers but there is also a need to consider the safety of those who are reliant on them in the context of air travel. This could be one of the most dangerous situations if we are not 100% confident in it.

My next point relates to tourism. We often talk about workers in airports and airlines, but there are an awful lot more workers across the country who are reliant on our aviation sector who we do not talk about when we discuss aviation, namely, all of those who are attached to tourism, as well as everyone who goes into their local shop or who works at an airport on which all of the local economy is reliant. The midlands-north west has been downgraded to being a region in transition. We have to recognise that. This means we need to support what is already there, but it also means looking at other kinds of infrastructure if we are not investing in airports. I am fully behind the repurposing of Galway Airport, but we need to look at other kinds of infrastructure, such as the western rail corridor, in the context of the national development plan. That will bring economy from across the island and around the island, from Rosslare right up to the north west. That is a serious proposal. The line is still there and it is not a huge amount of money so we need to look at reopening that portion of the railway.

Those are my thoughts on the Bill. It is fairly technical in nature but it provides an opportunity, quite rightly, to bring up other issues relating to the aviation sector.