Senator Gerard Craughwell - speech from 21 Sep 2022

quickly on the section again. Legislation that was brought in after the financial crisis, which was understandable in some ways, made a lot of changes to how superannuation works. You have people now paying into superannuation who cannot benefit from it. If it is just something that the Minister would bring back to her colleague in finance and public expenditure and reform, I do not expect the Minister to do anything about this here. Maybe, Minister, you would respond on the section, just on those observations. Thank you, Senators, for giving me the opportunity to respond to it. As is established practice in state agency restructurings, transfers or mergers, the pension provision currently being experienced by employees should not be impacted. Employees should be no better off nor no worse off under the new arrangements, and the Bill provides safeguards in relation to this, and ensuring this has been a key objective for my department. It is currently the case that the IAA may grant pension increases from time to time, following authorisation from the Minister for Transport and the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform. However, any such increases are discretionary in nature, and decisions around providing such discretionary pension increases are based on the IAA having sufficient funds being available. There are other important considerations when examining pension increases, namely the affordability and sustainability of the increases and the impact that such an increase may have on funds of the pension scheme itself. Additional considerations when providing for a pension increase also include the solvency of the scheme, scheme rules, the risk profile of the scheme, and, as referenced earlier, the ability of the original employer to meet financial obligations arising from pension increases should the need arise. On a regular basis, the scheme actuary must certify that the scheme meets the minimum funding standards. This tests whether or not the scheme holds sufficient assets to meet accrued benefits if it were to wind up on the valuation date. Pension increases of a non-discretionary nature, as proposed in this amendment, would significantly increase the risk of a scheme failing the minimum funding standard. Such failure would require that the funding proposal is put in place under the Pensions Act 1990. A funding proposal could result in a combination of increased member contributions, increased employer contributions and or benefit reductions to move the scheme back on track. To be clear, section 1142 of the bill does not expressly provide for pension increases to car staff. What section 112 of the bill does is make it clear that any existing terms that allow for discretionary increases survive restructuring. This amendment, which appears to have no precedent across the commercial semi-state sector, would see a cohort of employees becoming better off due to changed terms and conditions following the establishment of AirNav Ireland and the reconstituted IAA. The amendment runs counter to the long-standing established practice in relation to superannuation and state agency restructuring and could carry increased risk of a scheme failing the minimum funding standard with the commitment implications as outlined. As such, I cannot accept Amendment 3IA. To state also that there are currently 443 pensioners who are beneficiaries of the plan. The company has requested more detail from its actuarial advisers on the matter of increases to pensioners, which will inform decision-making under the process being chaired by Mr Ciaran Mulvey. Mr Mulvey has been appointed to carry out a pensions review. We can only have one contribution per senator on the section, but given your ingenuity, you will find a way to bring the point up again under another section. Thank you. That section 70 starts part of the bill. Is that agreed? Agreed. Thank you. I move. Amendment 3J, 3K, 7A and 7B are related and may be discussed together by agreement. Is that agreed by the House? Agreed. Thank you. Minister, do you wish to speak to Amendment 3J? Thank you. I move amendments 3J and 3K. Oh, sorry. And to the group. I apologise. The schedule to the Irish Aviation Authority Act in 1993 sets out the annexes to the Chicago Convention of Civil Aviation for which the IAA has functional responsibility. This group of amendments are technical amendments to provide clarity in relation to the functional responsibility of the IAA in respect to annexes 12 and 16. Annex 12 of the Chicago Convention concerns the establishment, maintenance and operation of search and rescue services by ICAO contracting states. The schedule to the Irish Aviation Authority Act in 1993 sets out the annexes to the Chicago Convention on Civil Aviation for which the IAA has functional responsibility. amendments 3J and 3K amend section 71 of the bill and thus section 78 of the Irish Aviation Authority Act in 1993 to clarify that the Minister may, by order, assign functional responsibility for part of an annex to the Chicago Convention to the IAA. amendment 7A amends schedule 2 of the bill and consequently the schedule to the Irish Aviation Authority Act in 1993 to make clear that the IAA has functional responsibility for the rescue coordination centres and rescue subcentres aspects of annexes 12 of the Convention. In essence, this restates the position originally provided for by statutory instruments 171 of 1995 and 172 of 1995. Related to this, I intend to bring an amendment at report stage to amend section 14 to assign an additional object to Air Nav Ireland to make clear that it has the vires to provide aeronautical rescue coordination for search and rescue services. Amendment 7B amends schedule 2 of the bill and consequently the schedule of the Irish Aviation Authority Act in 1993 to provide that the IAA has functional responsibility for all aspects of annexes 16, which concerns environmental protection measures, with the exception of Volume 4, which addresses the carbon offsetting and reduction scheme for international aviation , which will remain with the Minister. Relevant national agencies, including the EPA, engage with my department in respect of Ireland, meeting its obligations under Volume 4. Thank you. Thank you very much indeed, Minister. I just want to check with the Minister. 7A and 7B, are they being brought in as a result of the Air Accident Investigation Unit report, where IAA was uncertain as to its role with respect to SAR? Thank you, Minister. No, that is not the case, Senator. Okay, thank you. Amendment 3J, the question is that the amendment be made. Is that agreed? Agreed. Amendment 3K is a government amendment I move. It is already discussed with 3J, so the question is that the amendment be made. Is that agreed? Agreed. Amendment 3I is in the names of Senators Crockwell, Byland, Gavin O'Donor and Warfield. Senator Crockwell, do you wish to move the amendment and speak to the amendment? I wish to move the amendment, Chair, and I will speak to it. Please. Thank you, Les Gairlock. What we are looking at here is we are looking at an audit trail, if you want. What we are putting in there in that section is a new section which deals with the IAA's oversight of the compliance with ICAO rules. From that point of view, it leaves us in a situation where we have an annual report. If there are deficiencies vis-à-vis what is required of ICAO, then those deficiencies are highlighted, are identified, and remedial action can be taken immediately to put things right. From that point of view, I think it strengthens the bill. I think it makes for good accounting, good reporting. From that point of view, I would ask the Minister to consider accepting that amendment. Before the Minister addresses this. Yes, look, I mean, just going back on what Senator Doherty said there. I reported here earlier on in the year that there were about 44 recommendations from the AIU that were outstanding and still no answer whatsoever as to what had happened. This is precisely what Senator Doherty is talking about, reporting mechanisms. So, very shortly after I spoke about the fact that these were all open with the AIU report, within a very short space of time, they were all suddenly closed. But they were closed in an unsatisfactory way. It is very clear in one or two of them, and I cannot remember them off the top of my head right now, but that the IAA and the AIU had accepted that steps had been taken, but that those steps were not consistent with what was required as a result of the AIU report. So, this is why the reporting mechanism is really important. This is why we have to be able to go back and look at audits and satisfy ourselves that things that were recommended, omissions that were identified, problems that are identified, are actioned and actioned rapidly and not just closed off for the sake of closing them off. So, from that point of view, I would ask the Minister to accept this amendment. We could get on really well here if we got one or two amendments through. So, I would ask her to do that. Thank you. Thank you very much. Minister, to respond please. Thank you. Thank you. Ireland enjoys a strong position on the ICAO League table for effective implementation of global aviation standards. That places Ireland in eighth position in the world, ranking of 193 states and second position among EU member states. Ireland's compliance with ICAO standards and recommended practices is subject to audit by ICAO under its universal safety oversight audit programme. In 2013, ICAO refocused its audit programme to a continuous monitoring approach to state's safety oversight systems. This continuous monitoring approach includes compliance checklists for standards and recommendation practices, also known as SARPs, for all 19 ICAO annexes. Currently, over 12,200 SARPs, that is your standards and recommended practices, and includes the facility for the filing of differences by states through a web-based platform known as the online framework, or OLF. The IAA and the Department of Transport are responsible for updating the relevant annexes on the online framework, or the OLF, in accordance with the respective responsibilities assigned to them under the schedule to the Irish Aviation Authority Act 1993. Ireland's responses to ICAOs, SARPs, are subject to EU coordination. This means that we must await a coordinated response to be developed and agreed at an EU level prior to submitting to the online framework. The ICAO SARPs also need to be transposed into the regulatory framework, and in the vast majority of cases, this means the EU regulatory framework. This is part of the European Union Aviation Safety Agency, or EASA, rulemaking programme, and EASA provides pre-filled ICAO compliance checklists to each member state to address the status of the EASA regulations against the latest ICAO annex amendments. The compliance checklists are subject to continuous monitoring by ICAO. As both the ICAO annex amendments and the EU regulatory framework are both continuously evolving, the information in the continuous monitoring approach system is always in a state of transition. An annual audit report of this activity would represent a snapshot in time, and the associated information may be quickly out of date. It should be noted that section 67 of the bill requires the IAA to prepare and submit to the minister by 30 April each year a safety aviation performance statement. Section 67 requires a statement to include details of the activities carried out during the relevant year and the outcome and follow-up from external oversight in relation to the universal safety oversight audit programme of ICAO, the International Civil Aviation Organization. Section 67 requires the Minister to lay the performance statement before the Houses of the Eur钟is within one month of receipt from the IAA. Given these existing mechanisms I do not propose to accept Amendment 3L. Thank you very much. Senator Crackwell and Indicator. Minister, I am rather shocked to hear that we rate so highly, given the report into Rescue 116, which was an appalling series of failures of oversight, failures of everything you could possibly think of, recklessness in all parts. Very recently I saw a tweet from the operator talking about leadership in safety and aviation. Leadership, four people lost their lives, let us not forget that, and that is what this is about. It may be a snapshot in time, but it is about having those snapshots in time. It is about having regular reporting that can be addressed at any given time and remedial action can be taken place. We do not need to go back to a situation where there is confusion as to who is responsible for what. Again, I ask you to accept the amendment. Thank you very much. Just to reiterate that Ireland's compliance with ICAO is subject to continuous monitoring approaches and oversight systems that are in place. This is a continuous process, as I have said. Also, as part of this bill, there will be a requirement for the IAA to prepare and submit to the minister by 30 April every year a safety aviation performance statement. Section 67 requires that that statement includes details of the activities carried out during the relevant year and the outcome and the follow-up from external oversight in relation to that universal safety oversight audit programme of ICAO. There are assurances there in relation to ensuring oversight is in place. They are the facts in relation to Ireland's position on the ICAO league table. The importance of this bill yet again is to ensure that we continue to maintain and strive to improve our standards. That is why it is so important that we progress with this bill, which is seen as best practice. Thank you. I am sure that the compliance with ICAO was there back in 2017. I am sure that the ICAO was having a look over our shoulder, or were they? Because if they were, if we were so compliant, how the hell did we finish up in a situation where an operator was acting recklessly with their crews, where a department had no means of overseeing what was going on, where the Irish Coast Guard, who were directly involved, were not observing what was going on. I find all this very hard to accept now that ICAO is very happy with Ireland. They surely cannot have been happy with Ireland back in 2017. Senator Clarke, is that in relation to the air accident investigation and the report? In relation to the operation of the entire SARA system in that period of time. The air accident investigation report had shown there was very poor oversight, reckless behaviour. Where does ICAO fit into that if they are keeping an eye and if we are so compliant with ICAO rules? How did we finish up where we were? How did we finish up where the IAA was confused as to its role with respect to the monitoring and control of the search and rescue? How did we finish up with a situation where crews were reporting problems and those problems were being ignored? Safety issues were being ignored. The Coast Guard had no oversight whatsoever of the contractor that was working for them. The Department of Transport had no oversight of what was going on. This is why the Air Accident Investigation Unit recommended that you bring on board aviation expertise in both organisations, and we have not done that. Senator Clarke Thank you very much. First of all, just to clarify that we have oversight by ICAO and EASA, and obviously we want to continuously improve. The IAA have accepted all of the recommendations of the Air Accident Investigation Report. It is important to reiterate that. I have said this previously in this House. We are all of the same goal here, Senator, ensuring that we have best practice and best oversight. We have EASA carrying out that oversight and also ICAO as well. I am just supposed to reassure senators that that oversight is there. This is a constant, continuous monitoring and compliance process. There are continuous checks, checklists for standards and recommendation practices. It is part of the European Union Aviation Safety Agency. The EASA rulemaking programme, EASA also provide pre-filled ICAO compliance checklists to each member state to address the status of EASA regulations against the latest ICAO annex amendments, and also that section 32 review that I spoke about earlier, which is going to be laid before the houses of the Oireachtas and will be presented to the Minister. Senator Crockwell, Minister, I understand your bona fides here, but in our wildest imagination, we cannot possibly say that, leading up to the crash of Rescue 116, that we were compliant with anything, because the air accident investigation report is damning, damning, damning, damning of the operator, of the Coast Guard, of the IAA and of your department. As my colleague has just pointed out, two of the recommendations that were made about aviation expertise have gone totally and utterly disregarded. I have said this time and time again as we progress through this bill, you can contract out risk if you want, but you cannot contract out responsibility, and your department is responsible, and I would love somebody from ICAO to come in here this evening and tell me that they were very happy with everything up to 2017 in aviation in Ireland, because if they were, they were as bad as the people that were damned in the AAIU report. This is not your fault, Minister, you were not in office at that time. Please do not try to defend it, because you were not in office, you were not there. The bottom line on it is that the report stands for everybody to read and it is damning. Prime Minister O' Thank you. Just to clarify as well that the Department has committed to reviewing the issue of expertise within the Department, just to reiterate that point and again to state that all of the recommendations have been accepted by the department and are being acted on and being progressed. If you might permit me just from earlier, I just want to clarify in relation to the past process and the executive search process for the chief executive of the IAA, just that they are the one process just to clarify that. Not complying with those two recommendations, and those two are only two of the ones, there's another one out there as well and I can't remember it off the top of my head that is closed but not completed. I don't know how you do that, but there are four families out there today who have lost loved ones and are we trying to tell them that there was a recommendation from the AIU and we are considering it? You watch any air accident investigation report anywhere in the world and they are featured on Sky TV every night of the week. Recommendations are implemented within weeks. This is 2022 and the recommendations go back to 2017. Very shortly after the crash, the recommendations were known to the department, notwithstanding the fact that a lot of this had to go through a legal process, etc. We still do not have aviation expertise. It is a very simple thing. We are employing a CEO of the IAA and we can advertise the post straight away. Why haven't we advertised for aviation expertise in both the Department of Transport and the Irish Coast Guard? Or better still, why haven't we seconded in somebody from the Irish Air Corps into both departments who are there and available? Or pilots from Aer Lingus or wherever? Why haven't we done that? I cannot imagine what the families of those who lost loved ones are thinking when they see how we have disregarded key elements of the AIU report. The question being pressed. The question is that the amendment be made. Those in favour say ta? Ta! if they are going to say neel? Neil. The question is defeated. Voter. Thank you.