Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire (Cork South Central, Sinn Fein)
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196. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport if he will intervene and engage with a company (details supplied) to ensure that no worker at Cork airport will be laid off for ten weeks at the end of 2021. [30185/21]

Hildegarde Naughton (Galway West, Fine Gael)
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The temporary closure of Aer Lingus's crew base at Cork Airport aligns with the airports planned closure to carry out construction works on its main runway and associated infrastructure. In addition to the announced lay offs for the period, the airilne also reported that they will be seeking a number of redundancies. The airline has indicated that such immediate actions and wider structural changes are to address the impact that COVID-19 has had.

Aer Lingus has stated that it will emerge from the pandemic as a smaller airline, and the temporary closure of their crew base at Cork Airport and the laying off of a number of their staff is a commercial decision for them. Both Minister Ryan and I met with their CEO soon after their announcement, and they did confirm that there is no strategic intent to reduce connectivity at Cork Airport, but that the restoration of air services would depend on market conditions.

The Government has now set out its plan for the resumption of non-essential international air travel, scheduled to begin on 19 July. This plan is built around EU Digital COVID Certificates and other proofs of vaccination, pre-departure PCR testing and mandatory quarantine that will allow international travel to operate safely. An “emergency brake” mechanism will also allow us to respond to the potential emergence of variants of concern.

While it may take some time for our aviation sector to regain the strong economic position it had at the start of the pandemic, Government has committed to ensuring that there will be no “cliff-edge” to the COVID-19 related business supports that are currently available.