Hildegarde Naughton (Galway West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

On Senator Craughwell's amendment, the 1993 Act specifies a term of up to seven years for the chief executive of the IAA and this Bill mirrors that. In terms of the complexity around a stand-alone aviation regulator and what is envisaged here, having that window of up to seven years would be important given the importance of the role and the restructuring, which is what this Bill is all about. Again, the term does not exceed seven years which is important to state.

In response to Senator Doherty's questions, the PAS process will begin shortly. There will be an advertisement on the PAS portal and an executive search as well. There are two processes under way to recruit a replacement for the CEO and it will be up to the board to put in place an interim CEO as that process gets under way. I acknowledge the importance of having somebody with great experience to come into this role. I thank Mr. Diarmuid Ó Conghaile for his service. He is a person of great experience and professionalism and Oireachtas Members would have seen that at meetings they had with him over the past 12 months. He has huge expertise behind him and I would like to thank him for the work that he has put into this so far. Senators can be assured that my absolute priority is to get a very capable replacement for him, which is why we are running an open competition. We want somebody who can bring the IAA through this transition and onto a new phase, in line with best practice across the EU.