I am okay for now.

I will address the Bill in the context of the amendments as they are put forward.

I welcome Senator Craughwell saying the Bill is good and that is important. This is why I am back in the Seanad today after a delay - to get best practice legislation for Ireland. I am here today to speak on amendments Nos. 1 and 2. There has been significant engagement. I want to go through the amendments and talk through the concerns that Senators have. This is exactly my role. I have made significant changes to the Bill. I ask Senators to permit me to address the Bill and talk through the amendments. It will be …

That is what I am making myself available today to do. I would love to go back to the legislation at hand. I ask the Acting Chair to assist us all with that.

I know that.

I will try to answer all of the queries and I will go into some of the other details after so I ask everyone to please bear with me. I cannot accept amendments Nos. 1 and 2. Amendments Nos. 1 and 2, as proposed, are not acceptable. As drafted, they risk infringing on the independence and flexibility of action of the IAA, as regulator, and contain a level of specifics and detail that are not appropriate in primary legislation. However, as Senators are aware, there has been an extensive dialogue with Senators, the IA…

Government amendment No. c4a provides for the IAA to convene an aviation stakeholders' forum with a broader membership than licenceholders. The purpose of the aviation stakeholders' forum will be as follows: to promote the sharing of best practice aviation safety initiatives; to engage with the IAA on matters relating to the regulation of aviation safety; to elicit views on proposals for EU and national regulatory changes in terms of aviation safety; and to enable the sharing of aviation lessons learned, best aviat…

I have answered the question relating to this issue. I outlined the situation at the start. As I said, the Department of Transport has engaged technical expertise when required and does so when required. In addition, the Department is also undertaking a review of the approaches taken in other countries regarding how they contract technical expertise. This is an ongoing work, but the Senator can be assured that there is technical expertise in the Department and that there is access to it.

I have answered the question. The Department of Transport has access to all the necessary expertise. If the Senator wishes to deal with the amendments here, he can deal with them. If he wishes to raise other issues under Commencement matters and have a more robust debate on this issue-----

It is not related to what-----

I have answered the Senator's question.

I have answered the Senator's question. We have access to all the technical expertise relating to-----

Yes, we have expertise in the Department in respect of-----

I have answered the question.

I have answered the question several times now. I have been very clear in this regard. I am not going to repeat it. I would rather deal with the Bill and the substance of these amendments.

Regarding the forum, what is required here are people who have expertise in aviation safety. It is for that reason that if we were to limit it to just licence holders that we would end up narrowing the membership of that forum. Using the suggested terminology would exclude the representatives of airlines and airports, for example. What everyone wants on that forum is to make sure that the right people are at the table. The term "stakeholders" is leaving it open to the forum, the regulator as well, to ensure that th…

I am taking this question on behalf of the Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan. Throughout the pandemic and more recently, the Government and the NTA have been actively engaged in ensuring appropriate and timely measures are in place to support the taxi sector in addressing the challenges it faces. I recognise that rising fuel costs are a significant challenge for all sectors. As the Deputy is aware, on 9 March the Government announced a temporary reduction in fuel-related excise duties of 20 cent per litre of petrol and 1…

On the ten-year rule, the NTA extended vehicle age limits several times during the pandemic, with standard age limits for taxis and hackneys now waived through to the end of 2022, thereby ensuring no operator exits the industry simply because of the need to replace a vehicle. These extensions of vehicle age limits were emergency measures in recognition of the challenges faced during the pandemic, including the necessary health-related restrictions imposed on society and the resultant collapse in demand for SPSV ser…

Of the 18,946 SPSV vehicles in the fleet in 2021, a total of 16,134 vehicles, which is equivalent to 85% of the fleet, were less than ten years old. A total of 2,359 vehicles were between ten and 15 years old, which represented 12.5% of the entire fleet. Approximately half of those, or 6.7%, were availing of the Covid-19 extension on the maximum permissible age. They were mainly taxis. The remaining 5.8% of vehicles were exempt from the ten-year age limit as a condition of their taxi licence or were older limousine…

I thank the Deputy for this question and the opportunity to update the House on the current situation at Dublin Airport. We can all agree that the passenger experience at Dublin Airport recently has fallen far short of the service that passengers should expect at our largest State airport. The DAA, as we all know, has the statutory responsibility to operate and manage Dublin Airport, including all the operations associated with security screening. The immediate priority is to ensure that Dublin Airport passengers c…