Jerry Buttimer (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

In the context of Senator Craughwell's contribution, to be fair to the Minister of State we have had extensive engagement with the Department, the Minister of State and the Department officials. As Senator Craughwell knows full well, those of us, including the Acting Chair, who are on the transport committee have dealt with this Bill extensively to the point where we have re-engaged again since the Bill began to make its way through this House.

On the question of expertise, we have engaged with Jim Gavin, who is the director of safety regulation in the IAA. He presented a series of briefings to us. He gave us a series of informative and substantive insights into the Bill around the capacity of the IAA, again acknowledging the issue' of peer support and the stakeholders' forum.

I will refer later to the matter of the vesting day.

The Oireachtas Joint Committee on Transport and Communications, the Minister of State and the Members of the House had Kieran Mulvey get involved in the whole process. That was an important part of engagement with staff. We were in Shannon. I could not stress enough my complete admiration for the staff in the aviation centre in Shannon. The level of pressure and stress and the competence of the staff is mind-blowing.

To respond to Senator Craughwell's point, we have a body of people who feed into the Department and advise the Minister through various mechanisms. They informed the Department, the Minister and the Government in arriving where we are today. The Irish Air Line Pilots Association, IALPA, has also been very engaged with all of us and has made very pertinent points, as have other stakeholders in the whole process. Therefore, a huge degree of competence and a huge amount of information has gone into producing this Bill. For the Senator to ask about the competency or advice given to the Minister is a moot point. If I am wrong I will be happy to retract, but my understanding is that the Department of Transport has a pool of knowledge, including experience-based knowledge.

We went to the IAA in Shannon, as the Acting Chair knows. The level of competency at that meeting was quite substantial, to my mind. The ability to communicate and to inform us on that day could not be questioned. Is Senator Craughwell saying that the people in the IAA are not qualified or are not competent? Does he believe they cannot brief the Minister, or inform or brief the Department, and as a consequence all stakeholders cannot collectively put together this legislation? I think the point Senator Craughwell makes is redundant, based on our visit to Shannon.