Senator Gerard Craughwell - speech from 14 Oct 2020

Mr Fein, welcome to the house it's my first time to meet you in this house since your elevation congratulations it couldn't happen to a better guy I've always been a fan of yours you're a pretty decent guy so welcome the speech just made by senator Dooley gives me great heart for Shannon there's an awful lot of good stuff that he put in there my visit to Shannon was in 1963 when I went there with a sister of mine that won a flight around Ireland and I thought it was the most awesome place in the world my next visit there was in 1968 as I emigrated from Ireland to London because my father wouldn't let me take the boat Minister I fully support my colleagues in Sinn Fein Senator Gavin who has made an excellent case for the workers that SIPTU represented the wider community in the wider community in Clare Limerick and Galway and indeed the country at large if the citizens of these counties are looking for the government for government reassurance in their amendment to the Sinn Fein motion then there is none to be found there I regret to say in fact it's an insult to those families affected to say the government recognizes the difficult decisions Shannon group has had to take in recent months to reduce its costs and the impacts of the impact of the impact of the impact of the impact of the impact of the impact of the impact of these measures on the employees of the company which are deemed necessary to enable the Shannon group to secure the future of the airport so that it is well placed when the sector recovers from this crisis Now Senator Dooley has gone out of his way to find alternative employment for staff from Shannon and I want to place my gratitude on record today to Senator Dooley for that and I can see he genuinely wants to work with Senator Gavin in protecting jobs Minister this is almost a textbook example of logical fallacy as it intimates that the sector will recover from the crisis without contribution and commitment of a loyal workforce and without specific proactive measures from government and Senator Dooley has made that case very very clearly in his speech today the government commitment is so vague and lacking in substance as to be no commitment at all it will be no consolation to the employees of the Shannon group to hear that the government commits to undertaking an examination of future viability and sustainability of the Shannon group and is considering financial supports and other measures that may be necessary and appropriate as part of the wider of the wider review of Shannon group Minister we often use the term time is of the essence in this house we're in the middle of a global pandemic and cannot afford the luxury of considering and examining CIP2 representatives have already been before the covert committee making a sensible and strong strong case for specific considerations for aviation workers in the Shannon group and indeed some of my colleagues have already referred to aviation workers all over the country and I would like to compliment Cork airport as well today for the work they have done in promoting that airport it's easy to promote Dublin but Cork has done a marvellous job and I'm sure my colleague Senator Baltimore will make that case in the not too distant future I fully endorse the CIP2 recommendation that the extension of the TWSS for the aviation sector be extended until the summer 2021 and be conditional on binding commitments from the employers we need a reassurance today Minister that no worker will be laid off on a compulsory basis while the employer is benefiting from TWSS and any recovery of the aviation sector will be predicated on strong links between the Shannon group and its employees I also fully support workers rights to make contributions to their pension scheme from the TWSS and that any changes to their terms and conditions of employment are agreed via collective bargaining process I noted with interest Minister that Clare County councillors including those from the government parties have called for a reversal of the Shannon Airport independence when the airport was removed from the DAA umbrella there were promises of 2.5 million passengers a year even before the COVID pandemic led to the current crisis in aviation these figures were never realised despite the outstanding work of the Shannon group Now is the ideal time to restructure the airport sector in Ireland so that when the pandemic has abated the sector is robust and fit for purpose As they say a good crisis should never be wasted and I support the Clare councillors and my Sinn Féin colleagues to bring Shannon Airport back under the DAA and I'll make the point at this stage Senator Dooley specifically mentioned Air Rienta and maybe the DAA is not the right vehicle and Senator Dooley, Senator Gavin they're living in the area they know more than I do maybe you're right maybe we need Air Rienta back or some similar body where we do not have the dominance of Dublin looking at the other two regional airports I know that Deputy Maurice Quinlivan has already raised this in the dial with the Minister and that the Minister has met with the unions felt that a change would take two or three years and it would not solve the underlying strategic issues and again I think Senator Dooley has made that point and Senator Gavin in his speech has we have to make strategic decisions on this on Shannon and I'm not sure that reconnecting to the DAA would immediately assist in that but I am sure that we do need a governing body for the airports I would be grateful if the Minister could expand and explain on why Shannon is not being brought back in under a national umbrella The airport going back to the 1980s when I lived in Limerick and lived there right through to the mid 1990s Shannon was a proud workforce but always struggling as long as I can remember Shannon was struggling so from the point of view of bringing Shannon back on stream we need investment we need a centralized authority that will manage all of our airports and we need to guarantee the jobs I think Senator Dooley made the point that workers expected that their terms and conditions would automatically transfer I know you've been working on that Senator Gavin in your work with SIPTU but that didn't happen that did not happen and Shannon has been pushed further and further out all along and that's something that we really have to change colleagues here have made some statements with respect to Knock Airport and its strategic importance to the Northwest region Shannon is vital to the Midwest and it is vital Limerick City one of the great things about moving to Limerick, Shannon, Clare is that the people there actually are quite cosmopolitan they're quite welcoming of strangers coming in to their county because of the Shannon development area we had foreigners coming in to Shannon from South Africa when De Beers Diamond set up down there and various other countries around the world and it made Shannon a really welcoming place Clare particularly Ennis benefited from that and Limerick benefited from that so the knock-on implications of Shannon are massive in that region they are truly massive and what we need is we need not an amendment to Senator Gavin's motion what we need is Senator Gavin's motion to be accepted Thank you Senator Crockwell I'll finish on that and I do wish my colleagues the very best as they move forward and I do hope that we can work together on this thank you Thank you Senator Thank you Thank you Thank you