Garret Ahearn (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State to the Chamber and thank her, her officials and all of those in the Department for the work they have put in over the past year or more. It has been a very difficult time for people who work in the aviation industry, but the Government has been very supportive and has worked with them to try to get them through the most difficult period they have ever experienced. It is a challenge to come out of that, there is no two ways about that, but the Government is very supportive of the aviation industry and understands the impact it has on Ireland as an island country.

I read today that the CEO of British Airways, Mr. Sean Doyle, announced that there will be a restoration of full pay for British Airways pilots. As the Minister of State knows, Mr. Doyle is a former CEO of Aer Lingus. Pay restoration is happening in the UK, while here in Ireland Aer Lingus is talking about pay cuts and redundancies. It is interesting that pay is being restored in one jurisdiction while there are pay cuts in another. There is an onus on us as a Government to support the industry, but there is also an onus on companies. Full restoration for pilots is something that needs to be achieved as quickly as possible.

Pilots will say that pay is important, but routes are also important because routes mean connectivity. If one has connectivity one has security of employment. The big difference between the two airlines in this country, namely, Ryanair and Aer Lingus, over the past year has been connectivity and the speed at which Ryanair has reinstated routes and flights. It needs to be commended for that. Ryanair gets an awful lot of flak, but it has been very quick in terms of its Covid recovery plan to get routes up and going. Today 20 routes for Cork were announced, two of which, Edinburgh and Birmingham, are new, along with an investment of €200 million, which is really significant.

In fairness to Ryanair, it ramped up its schedule extremely quickly. However, the same cannot be said about Aer Lingus. It has not increased its American flight schedule. It is important for businesses that we have connectivity to America. Flights to the east coast have restarted, but not to the west coast, including Los Angeles and San Francisco. Silicon Valley is important to a lot of businesses in Ireland and it is crucial that Aer Lingus is as eager as Ryanair to make sure that its routes are recovered because if they are not someone else will take them.

I wish to emphasise the point made by Senator Buttimer that if we as a Government and Ryanair and Aer Lingus are going to have an aviation recovery plan, it needs to be country wide. It cannot just be Dublin-based. Shannon and Cork are key routes for people in Tipperary. I spoke to a number of people two weeks ago about priorities in Tipperary and what we need to focus on coming out of Covid. For north Tipperary, in particular Newport and the regions around it, Shannon Airport is critical for the region. It is the same in Cahir and Clonmel, where the Cork route is crucial. If the routes were available people in south Tipperary would fly from Cork whereas people in north Tipperary predominantly go to Shannon if the option is there. Aer Lingus needs to get its American routes up and running.

There are no Aer Lingus routes between Shannon and America. At the moment, people can book a flight with United Airways to Philadelphia for next March, or April from Shannon. One cannot do the same with Aer Lingus. The longer things stay like that, the more chance there is that Aer Lingus will lose opportunities and space. It is very focused on setting up a base in Manchester, whereas its focus should be on connectivity and routes within Ireland because for regions like Cork and Shannon that is crucial.

A lot of people say that we need to get back to the levels we had pre-Covid and talk about 2019. If we are talking about trying to get back to levels that are realistic, 2019 is probably not the best gauge from which to work. It was an exceptionally good year. If we want to get back to levels that are realistic we should probably take a look at 2018, which was about 10% less than 2019.

I thank the Minister of State for her contribution today. Senator Buttimer is correct. Aviation is very important country wide, not just in Dublin