Gerard Craughwell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

Those are only two of the recommendations, there is another also which I cannot recall off the top of my head that is closed but not completed. I do not know how the Minister of State does that. There are four families out there who have lost loved ones. Are we trying to tell them that there was a recommendation from the AAIU and we are considering it?

In the case of any air accident investigation report anywhere in the world – they are featured on Sky TV every night of the week – recommendations are implemented within weeks. This is 2022 and the recommendations date from 2017, they were known to the Department very shortly after the crash, notwithstanding the fact that much of this had to go through a legal process. We still do not have aviation expertise.

It is a very simple thing. We are employing a CEO of the IAA. We can advertise the post straight away. Why have we not advertised for aviation expertise in both the Department of Transport and the Irish Coast Guard? Better still why have we not seconded in somebody from the Irish Air Corps, people are available, into both Departments, or pilots from Aer Lingus or wherever? Why have we not done that? I cannot imagine what the families of those who lost loved ones think when they see how we disregarded key elements of the AAIU report.