Regina Doherty (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Cathaoirleach for indulging me. The reason I want to speak to the section is that I did not know that amendments Nos. a4a, c4a and d4a were contingent on one another, that is, if one if was passed, another could not be pressed. Having said that, I acknowledge and accept that the Minister of State has moved to include some of the provisions of my amendments in her own amendments on Report Stage.

I want to talk about the section in respect of peer support. I am very concerned about the amendment that has been accepted because it does not do justice to the licence holders for whom the peer support programmes are proposed. These programmes are regulated by EASA across the European Union but are to be stipulated individually in member states. What we are talking about here is transposing the legislation.

The Cathaoirleach might remember that, when we were having this conversation a number of months ago, at various stages we asked the Minister of State who were the expert aviators who gave her advice with regard to responding to these amendments, both from the Opposition and me, all of which were drafted in co-operation with the experts in IALPA. I certainly did not have the temerity to manufacture or draft the amendments myself. My concern arises from correspondence between the Minister of State and me and from the responses to a series of freedom of information requests. It has now become apparent there was no advice, expert or otherwise, sought on responding to the either my amendments or those of the Opposition from anyone other than the officials in the Department.

We have had various debates here on this Bill and on Rescue 116 that have focused on two specific recommendations from the air rescue report which gave the Department specific instructions as regards its deficit of aviation expertise. The Department's response to both recommendations was to say that work was in progress and that it would take on board the suggestions from the air navigation rescue team report. However, to date, we still do not have any expertise within the Department. My concern is I am now aware no experts were consulted in drafting responses to my amendments and those of the Opposition.

The reason this concerns me is that, in the last correspondence between the Minister of State and the union representing the licence holders, she stated with regard to peer support that a pilot may seek support from any person he or she chooses - we had previously raised pilots' lack of ability to go to agencies or airlines other than their own employers - but that she was advised that, if that pilot chooses a peer or person who is not part of their employer-enabled support programme, the privacy protections and safety benefits of the employer scheme mandated by EU regulations and laid down by EASA do not apply. For the life of me, I have absolutely no idea where that idea has come from because it is absolutely and blatantly untrue. It set me thinking that I do not know who the officials or experts in the Department of Transport advising the Minister of State are. It is very clear the advice given to her on that response to a meeting about a peer support programme is wrong. This really undermines the Minister of State's response to these amendments as she has acknowledged she did not seek any advice on them other than from officials within the Department.

I just want to give the Minister of State an opportunity to explain why she did not. Why do we not have aviation experts within the Department despite the authorities responsible for clearing up and investigating accidents telling us and nearly begging us to? On numerous occasions, including today, the Minister of State has stood in this House and told us the experts she sought advice from with regard to this legislation, with the exception of the drafting of the search and rescue amendments, were the 120 safety experts in the Irish Aviation Authority, the 25 engineers and the 25 pilots, all of whom are leading global experts. In actual fact, the responses to these freedom of information requests show that nobody was consulted on the response to the amendments. I would sincerely like to know why these amendments from the Opposition and me were treated any differently from our obligations under the EASA regulations, which we adhered to in the drafting of the rest of this Bill.