Patrick O'Donovan (Limerick County, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

On the wider point regarding Ministers coming before the House, while I do not want to be presumptuous, if there was a revision of the scheduling of ministerial engagements with Seanad Éireann after Christmas, that would be very helpful. As Senator Kyne will know from previous experience, in many instances we are being asked to give responses, through no fault of our own and no fault of the Minister responsible, on policy issues or difficulties with which we are not familiar. Maybe a schedule could be prepared so that Ministers would know a couple of weeks in advance when they are due to appear before the Seanad. In that way, some people who might feel that they will get a nose bleed if they came here would be more inclined not to say they have diary commitments that prevent them from coming to this Chamber. It has always been a pleasure for me to come in here and I have always been very warmly received.

Now I will get on with the business in hand. The Minister for Transport, Deputy Eamon Ryan, and the Minister of State at the Department of Transport, Deputy Naughton, attended the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport and Communications to discuss this issue last week. During that discussion they set out some of the objectives of the review of our national aviation policy and issues that will require consideration. The existing policy was first published in 2015 and its progress was reviewed twice, most recently in 2019. The development of that policy was thorough and launched in December 2012. It involved significant consultation and consideration.

Ireland's location, with no land connection to our international neighbours, serves only to highlight the importance of aviation. As such, a dynamic and forward-thinking policy is key to Ireland retaining its competitive position in the European Union. In her recent address to Dáil Éireann, the President of the European Commission, Ms Ursula von der Leyen, remarked that Ireland is a success story of the European Union and our aviation sector has played an important role in that success. Aviation is a generator of high-quality direct employment and also serves as a driver in the creation of employment in other sectors of our economy.

Our existing policy had the principal goals of enhancing Ireland's connectivity, fostering growth in enterprise and maximising the contribution of aviation to Ireland's sustainable economic growth and development. Having said that, it is evident that the world and the whole aviation sector have changed considerably in the short time since 2015, with Covid-19 emerging in early 2020. It is because of Covid-19 that work on the review of our national aviation policy was stalled, with officials in the Department of Transport instead refocusing on addressing the impact of the pandemic. Outside of Covid-19 impacts, an area that will require significant consideration is that of the environmental impacts of air connectivity. Between the introduction of our existing policy and now, there has been significant focus on climate impacts and decarbonisation of the aviation sector which will need to be reflected appropriately in any policy review.

At a European level, work is progressing on ambitious legislative proposals which will place obligations on airlines to incorporate mandated levels of sustainable aviation fuel into their supply chains and to strengthen their engagement in the emissions trading scheme, ETS. The need to secure the decarbonisation of the industry while also ensuring our connectivity is not negatively impacted is the primary challenge we face going forward. Recovery in aviation is well under way and it is time to refocus attention on the review of our national aviation policy and deliver connectivity between Ireland and the rest of the world in a more sustainable way.