Olivia Mitchell (Dublin South, Fine Gael)
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Question 155: To ask the Minister for Transport if his attention had been drawn to the lack of rigour in enforcement of maintenance of aircraft requirements in the US in view of the fact that there has been a fine in one case and the grounding of a large number of aircraft; if he will ensure that the utmost vigour is applied in this area with regard to airlines within this jurisdiction; the steps he has taken to ensure that the foreign based aircraft observe such requirements; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [15532/08]

Noel Dempsey (Meath West, Fianna Fail)
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Safety oversight of civil aviation in Ireland is the responsibility of the Irish Aviation Authority (IAA) under the Irish Aviation Act 1993. The IAA has informed me that the matter the Deputy refers to occurred in the United States and involved aircraft types which are operated by their respective airlines on internal flights in the US. The Authority has informed me that it carries out rigorous surveillance and enforcement in the conduct of its safety oversight functions. Furthermore the standards applied and the quality of the surveillance is subject to standardisation inspection by the Joint Aviation Authorities (JAA) and the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) on behalf of the EU Commission. The IAA is subject to several of these inspections per annum. These standardisation inspections are detailed and rigorous and provide independent assurance of the standards applied by the Authority.

The Deputy may also be aware that a harmonised approach to the effective enforcement of international safety standards in the Community has been established under Directive 2004/36/EC. This requires Member States to carry out surveillance on foreign aircraft operating into and out of the EU. The IAA is the Competent Authority in the State for the purposes of the Directive. The IAA carries out such inspections, the results of which are used in the determination of the EU blacklist of aircraft and airlines which are excluded from operating into the EU.