Regina Doherty (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The purpose of amendment No. 3 is to provide peer support. I will go through the section line by line to discuss why it is imperative the peer support programme be put on a legislative footing. In a statement by the Minister a number of weeks ago on why it the Department's view that we should not put it in legislation the reason given was there was no need to do so because we subscribe to Regulation (EU) 2018/1042, which was implemented by the Commission a number of months ago. It concerns me that the written communications between us and the Department tell us the Department does not feel that crew peer support should be in primary legislation because it is in Regulation (EU) 2018/1042.The understanding of the Department, which we have in writing, is that the airlines are responsible for putting in place the peer support programmes for their own flight crews. However, when we read the regulation, it states airlines are responsible for a hell of a lot more than just providing peer support programme for their own flight crews. It states that an operator "shall enable, facilitate and ensure access to a proactive and non-punitive support programme that will assist and support flight crew in recognising, coping with, and overcoming any problem which might negatively affect their ability to safely exercise the privileges of their licence. Such access shall be made available to all flight crew." That is clearly far more comprehensive than just putting in place something wishy-washy.

I want to concentrate on the amendment we have tabled. Under Commission regulation 2018/1042, each airline must facilitate access for pilots to non-punitive peer support programmes. They must fundamentally, progressively and proactively help them overcome problems which might negatively affect their ability to safely exercise the privileges of their licence. The regulation came into effect on February 2021 under the European Union Aviation Safety Agency, EASA, rules. It is required that it is effective in each member state by August 2022. We know that some peer support programmes have been provided in Ireland for many years. One, in particular, has been operating very effectively. However, there is no consistency in the provision of peer support programmes by the multiple airlines operating the country. Some airlines are protracted in their views that the peer support person should be selected by management, which results in the entire programme being undermined and ineffective. The amendment that the Irish Air Line Pilots' Association, IALPA, has proposed, as a number of colleagues have mentioned today, additional national requirements in respect of crew peer support programmes. Under these requirements, the IAA would review the peer support programmes every three years under specific criteria, and not under a wink and a nod such as that proposed in the draft documents that we received from IAA as to what it would do, to reassure us that there was no need for us to put the requirements in legislation. According to the amendment, comprehensive and specified criteria for the review would be required. The IAA would be required to seek feedback from users of the programmes, if and where feasible; and to direct changes to the programmes where deficiencies are identified. It would also be required to convene a national forum whose functions would include the sharing of best practice; encouraging co-operation between different programmes; the monitoring of the effectiveness of the programmes; the approval and monitoring the content and delivery of peer support training programmes; and the creation or encouragement of the provision of a national crew peer support programme, so that there is consistency of delivery and consistency in the provision of support and services to the licence holders. More importantly, it would ensure that there is consistency in upholding the standards of safety that we claim to hold dear to us in these Chambers.

In response, unfortunately, I believe a Government amendment will be introduced, which will just require the IAA to conduct a review of the effectiveness of the crew peer support programmes, almost at any stage it likes. The language could not be more evasive. What we are really seeking to do is to address the matters such as the promotion of these programmes, the consistency of the programmes and the trust that is needed to make sure that the programmes work in the best interests of the licenceholders, who all have the same issues as all other professionals in the country but with much more serious consequences if they are not managed and minded. We want to address matters such as the independence of the peers from management or the supervisory functions. We need to address the selection and training of the peers. Unfortunately, the Government amendment does not provide for a national crew peer support forum, as we have requested. The Members of this House and indeed the officials from the Department have engaged extensively on the matter. However, it is not yet clear, as far as the Minister and the Government are concerned, how the objective of such a forum will allow for the creation or the encouragement of the provision of national peer support for crew. Previous amendments that I have tabled have been ruled out of order. The Government amendments to be moved later will establish a forum to discuss the matter of national peer support programmes. We will be relying on a forum that has no compellability, no timelines for when it is going to meet, no clear charter as to what the agenda of what the forum is going to be, and no encouragement features to ensure that everybody who has an interest in the safety of our airlines and aviation industry will be there to sit down and have a conversation about what a peer support programme should look like nationally. If everybody is not at the table, I do not really understand how we can come together and effectively say that we are going to create a single national consistent and supportive programme to support the aviation licence holders in the country.

From speaking privately to the Minister of State and from hearing her public utterances, I know that she is supportive of the proposal, and believes that a proposed peer support programme would effectively be a very good thing. However, I am mindful that we apparently do not believe that we are there yet, despite the fact that an exemplary peer support programme has been running since the 1970s that is state-of-the-art and could be used as a benchmark to show and prove what we can do nationally if we have the mindset to do it. I also note that during the course of our meetings, a number of proposals and draft documents were sent to us by officials in the IAA to try to dissuade Members of this House from supporting or even introducing amendments that were recognised and requested by the IALPA. Listing and reading the measures that it will take, which are supposed to assuage us, I really am not sure whether the tail is wagging the dog or the dog is wagging the tail. I know many people think that we are making a mountain out of a molehill by stretching this legislative process out. I do not doubt for a moment how important it is to get it passed. However, we do not want to pass a piece of legislation that is completely flawed. To my mind, legislation that does not address a significant amount of the safety regulation that is required in this country is a very dangerous piece of legislation, because it gives the pretence of doing something when in reality nothing is being done at all.

I support amendment No. 3 that has been put down by my colleagues in relation to putting in primary legislation the specific details of a peer support programme, the specific regulations that our airlines will be required to comply with and the specific authority that will be given to the IAA to review, regulate, control and mind the licence holders in the industry. They are powers that the IAA says that it does not want, which is really bizarre. I have never come across a regulatory agency that has refused extra powers in my life before. Yet, we have been at pains for months to try to persuade the IAA that it needs the powers. In my view, we absolutely need peer support programmes to be consistent, uniform and available to every single member that is a licence holder who is responsible for the safety of crew members, passengers and cargo planes in this country. I ask the Minister of State to seriously consider the flaws of her response that this issue will not be addressed now but at some stage in the future, and that we need to sit around a table to discuss the matter. It is a table that nobody is ever going to be compelled to sit around to ensure that we have the safety of the people who run, manage and are licensed to fly the aircraft in this country, whether commercial, passenger or search and rescue operations, and to ensure that we do well by the people that we put our trust in every single time we fly into our of Ireland.