Gerard Craughwell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am not an expert in the area, but I am being asked to put my name to this Bill by virtue of the fact that I have been involved in discussion on it. This will be the Minister of State, Deputy Naughton's, Bill when it goes onto the Statute Book properly and the bottom line is that none of us is expert enough to make judgments on some of the provisions in the Bill.

Section 67 makes reference to the Minister. It refers to conducting a regulatory review along with the universal safety oversight audit programme of the International Civil Aviation Organization, ICAO. The Bill does not explicitly state what type of expertise the people conducting this review will be required to have. Other amendments I have tabled today provide for the appointment of a chief executive, who I believe could address this issue. Does section 67 reflect the best practices in aviation? I do not believe it does and we need to be incorporating all the relevant stakeholders to ensure that it does.

How might this Bill not be the best implementation of the EASA regulation? There are problems with section 76. Apart from the section 67, section 76 invests too much power in the Minister. I believe this would be contrary to Article 8 of the EASA regulation. Under this section the Minister has responsibility for strengthening the national aviation safety regulatory framework for the Irish Coast Guard.