Regina Doherty (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

With respect, that does not answer my question. What is wrong with having oral hearings and taking the information under oath?

With regard to the pyramid, we are actually trying to strengthen the system we already have. The Minister of State knows from the reports that have been issued based on the penalties handed down by the current IAA to any of those in respect of whom there has been an infringement concerning their licences or activities have been tantamount to nothing more than a slap on the wrist. The licence holders, who are the people we are governing in addition to the airlines, are calling out for a better pyramid structure that starts with serious consequences. I am not talking about criminal sanctions. If we ever got to a scenario where these were needed, I would hope that there would be no stalling. We are tinkering around the edges here without actually having any real impact on the infringements that are happening week in, week out in our aviation industry. Given that we are changing the system – the Minister of State referred to revolutionary changes within the aviation sector – and changing the position on commercial operations and safety regulations, we are going to carry on with the same old, same old, with the same pyramid structure we have had, which entails a slap on the wrist and an ould letter to tell you that you did something wrong. However, there will be no financial or legal impacts and no infringement actions associated with one’s activities, be they commercial or those of a licence holder. What we are doing is creating a toothless system, except at the very top of the pyramid, which can entail taking somebody to court and closing an operation down. That has not happened in the history of aviation in this country and is not likely to happen in the near future.