Lynn Boylan (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

To echo what Senator Craughwell said, we are bringing forward these amendments in good faith because we broadly welcome the legislation but we think these would enhance what the Minister of State has brought forward. They are not big asks but they are exceptionally important asks. The first one, of course, is the licenceholders' forum. Despite the commitments from the IAA that its new strategy will provide for a licenceholders' forum, its actions suggest otherwise and would give cause for concern and demonstrate that there is still a policy and a culture of exclusion that is deeply ingrained.

Recently, there was a safety and technical workshop to discuss the impact of Covid-19 restrictions on the industry and IALPA was excluded from that forum. The only way we can break that deeply ingrained culture of exclusion is to ensure that the solutions are not always about the cheapest option or what is in the commercial interest of the airline, and to underpin the right of licenceholders in either the legislation or in the regulations.

Unfortunately, we in this country have a long history of light touch regulation and self regulation and we are living with the legacy of it, and we have seen people's houses crumbling as a result of light touch regulation. I cannot see where the issue is with ensuring that licenceholders have the right to be represented at those fora being underpinned in the legislation.

The same applies to the charter. This amendment also seeks to set out how the IAA should interact with licenceholders, pilots, engineers and cabin crew and it would copper-fasten that relationship. When I met with representatives from IALPA it was deeply concerning to hear their experience of how they interact with the IAA. When they raise issues of concern and of safety, they are normally advised that they should go through their airline, which completely ignores the asymmetrical power relationship of employer and employee. Sometimes they do not get a response from the IAA, or sometimes it takes six months to get a response. They do not know how high a priority that response is going to get or whether anybody is investigating it. On many occasions they are left completely in the dark.

This was in contrast to the UK regulator. In one particular instance, they went to both regulators. They had a response from the UK regulator instantaneously outlining what the regulation was and what the next steps should be, whereas it took six months to get a vague response from the Irish regulator. The charter and the forum must be underpinned by the legislation which would set out very clearly when the regulator should respond to any reports made to it, how quickly it should respond and outlining how seriously it is taking those reports and that the licenceholder can go directly to the regulator without going through the airline.