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

The aviation ecosystem is complex and it consists of a wide range of people to ensure the delivery of a multitude of services to make the aviation system function safely. That is the objective of this forum. It is about aviation safety and those who will be at the table will be able to feed into that and are experts in the area. The purpose of this forum will be to highlight the exact areas that Senators raised and that is why I have put that into this Bill. I have done so to promote the sharing of best practice in aviation safety initiatives; engage with the IAA on matters relating to the regulation of aviation safety; and elicit views on proposals at EU and national level around aviation safety, enabling the sharing of aviation lessons learned, best practices and aviation safety performance indicators. The purpose of this is to ensure the right people are around the table who specialise in aviation safety and who have that collaborative approach. That is why I put the stakeholders' forum into this Bill. I did so to make it more robust and to ensure the commitment is there in primary legislation that this forum will be set up.

On the three-month time period, from my Department's point of view and from my point of view, there will be urgency around this charter. I assure Members of that but they will need time in order to ensure they can collaborate, engage and co-operate. By tying it down to three months it is setting too limited a time, and I say that from engagement with the IAA. Members can be assured that my Department will place a huge focus on that to ensure the charter is published.