Clare Daly (Dublin Fingal, Independent)
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83. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport the steps the Irish regulatory authorities will take to control and oversee an airline's (detailed supplied) operations particularly in regard to work practices, in the event that the airline commences services from Cork city to the United States of America. [15508/16]

Shane Ross (Dublin Rathdown, Independent)
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Norwegian Air International (NAI) was licensed as an Irish airline by the Irish Aviation Authority (IAA) and the Commission for Aviation Regulation (CAR) in February 2014. As such it is subject to the same aviation oversight regime administered by these aviation regulators as any other Irish airline.

NAI operates out of several European bases and has several hundred people working for it, including approximately 80 people working at its head office at Dublin airport. The airline has publicly stated that it always follows the rules and regulations in all the markets in which it operates and offers employees competitive wages and conditions.

It has been well publicised that NAI would like to fly routes to the United States from Ireland and other European countries and it had hoped to start flying from the airline's base in Barcelona to Cork and onwards to Boston in May this year. However, it has been unable to commence this service pending the necessary permission from the US authorities. I support this proposed route which would benefit the Cork region and hope that NAI will be in a position to operate the route as soon as possible.

The Cork services would not involve aircraft or crew based in Ireland and I am not aware that the company has any plans to establish such a base in Ireland for the present. In terms of the oversight of the airline's work practices the new services would be no different to the other new routes that NAI operates on a routine basis around Europe.