Regina Doherty (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

As far as the Minister of State is concerned, there is nothing stopping the IAA from doing this. There is nothing stopping it doing anything it wants to do. It just has not done it to date, for the past 25 or 30 years. That is the concern. The lack of trust that currently exists in respect of engagements between licenceholders and the IAA has caused us to find ourselves at a point where we are perhaps trying to be, as the Minister of State put it, too prescriptive in legislation. The reason for that is the lack of trust that exists. While we have been discussing this Bill in recent years, the Minister of State has said the new broom within the IAA, the CEO-designate, is going to change that. Well, he is no more and, therefore, he has not managed to change it. We are now on an interim CEO and recruiting for a new one. Some people may have the hope that the new CEO will change the culture that currently exists in Irish aviation but I do not have any faith or trust in that. The Minister of State is telling me that, on a wink and a nod, the IAA can and will do this and that we do not need to tell it to do it, but it has not done anything to instil trust in an industry that has been so precarious in the context of safety, and we have seen the outcomes of that. That does not fill me with confidence. I accept that the amendment will be pressed and lost, and that is fine, but 12 months from now, when we still have no licenceholders' charter because no real engagement has taken place, whose responsibility will that be? Will it be our responsibility because we allowed it to go off on our watch? Will it be the responsibility of the Minister of State or her successor as Minister with responsibility for aviation? Who is going to be responsible for the lack of trust that currently exists in an environment and an industry that is so precarious from a safety perspective, which is crying out for regulations in order that it would be regulated on a safety perspective or basis, and when the events the Minister of State has stated will happen have not happened?