Seán Haughey (Dublin Bay North, Fianna Fail)
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759. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport his plans to restructure the regulatory functions of the Irish Aviation Authority and the Commission for Aviation Regulation; his plans to merge the safety regulation division of the Irish Aviation Authority with the Commission for Aviation for Regulation to bring about a stand-alone aviation regulator under the name of the Irish Aviation Authority; if the existing air traffic control side of the Irish Aviation Authority will be reconstituted as a separate State-owned commercial company; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [7324/20]

Shane Ross (Dublin Rathdown, Independent)
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I am glad to report to the Deputy that an advanced draft of a Bill to give effect to this key reform measure is being scrutinised by my Department, in consultation with the Office of the Attorney General. It should be ready for publication soon. As reflected in the Government's policy statement on the matter - which was published in September 2017 - the Bill provides for the establishment of a newly reconstituted regulatory Irish Aviation Authority - merging the safety and security regulatory functions of the current IAA with the economic regulation and consumer affairs functions of the Commission for Aviation Regulation. This will create a single aviation regulator, and it will represent an important modernisation and strengthening of aviation regulation in Ireland. The draft Bill also provides for the establishment of a completely separate, commercial State-owned air navigation service provider. This new company will operate as a regulated commercial entity, and for so long as it continues to make a profit - noting that it is a State monopoly - it will continue to pay the State annual dividends.

Being very much an outlier internationally, the institutional separation of Ireland’s aviation regulatory and commercial air navigation service provision functions is important. It is an old model, which was put in place in the early 1990s and has remained largely unchanged since. The industry and what constitutes effective regulation has moved on. The reforms I have set in motion are in line with international best practice, and they will enhance the State’s aviation sector through the establishment of a stronger and more robust regulatory environment. While progress has been made on the legislative front, I have been less happy with the pace of preparation in the IAA to prepare for the changes, and I have made that clear to the Board and the management.

These benefits of the reform, and the broad stakeholder support for it, were recently underlined in a report on the safety performance of the IAA, which I commissioned under Section 32 of the IAA Act 1993. This report noted, as I have raised myself, that the progress on the reform project has not been achieved as quickly as expected.

When the time comes to publish the Bill and seek Oireachtas endorsement, I am confident that this is one of those legislative proposals that will lend itself to broad political support.