Regina Doherty (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

In the absence of accepting the amendment which, I assume, the Minister of State, will not, what is the principle of ensuring that the new authority will be compliant not just with the ICAO regulations but also EASA regulations? What open and transparent method will the Minister of State or the IAA employ other than an annual review which we have been told we will get every three years?

I do not wish to hark back to previous debates, but the report into Rescue 116 took a significant number of years. Unfortunately, a significant number of years later agencies and Departments have not complied with its recommendations of the long-awaited report,. That does not instill much confidence that the new agency that is fundamentally responsible for every aspect of air navigation safety will report in an open and transparent way without this amendment. Can the Minister of State reassure us that we have another mechanism whereby we can, on an annual, or much more frequent basis, get reports?