I also lend my support to the previous topic that was raised. The fact that the N24 was not funded for this year is a disgrace, given that the preferred routes were in place.

Sentiment score: -0.05

In fact, the only funding that was given from the Government this year was to buy out the contract of the company that actually did the work on the preferred route. There are real concerns that this vital road is now being put on hold. The Waterford to Limerick road really needs to be improved. Deputy Conor McGuinness and I, and all the Oireachtas Members from across the affected counties, will continue to raise this to ensure that it gets proper funding next year. Today, we are here to raise very important issues about workers whose bravery goes above and beyond the call of duty. These are our air search and rescue crews. We saw that recently in a tragedy in Waterford when an aircraft crashed just outside Waterford airport. Unfortunately, there was a fatality. The air search and rescue service was on the scene very quickly. These are crew members who work 24-hour shifts. They are required to be on site and remain on base for the full 24 hours. At any moment, they can be called to be deployed. They are in a state of immediate preparedness and have to respond, sometimes in a matter of minutes, and they do. We saw that last week. Bizarrely, the Irish Aviation Authority and, by extension, the Government do not recognise their full 24 hours as work time. In fact, one quarter of the time they do as part of these 24-hour shifts is bizarrely labelled as standby time or rest time. That is clearly not the case. We are asking the Government to listen to the concerns that have been raised by the representative trade union and by crew members whom Deputy Conor McGuinness and I met over the course of the past few weeks. They are raising very genuine safety and fatigue issues. We ask the Government to intervene and that the Irish Aviation Authority ensure they are fully compliant with the European working time directive for these vital workers.

Sentiment score: 0.14

I think the Minister of State is conflating fatigue risk management systems with accounting of hours. Crews would say they are two completely different things. Of course there should be fatigue risk management systems but this is counting one quarter of their hours as rest time. The Minister of State acknowledged in his response that these crew had to remain on base and were ready to be deployed at a moment's notice. The Minister of State said that this was a HR issue, was not for the Department, and was between the employer, the Irish Aviation Authority and the crew. This reminds me of the HSE where everything is at arm's length, where it is not the Minister's fault, it is not the Department's fault, it is some other agency's fault. There is a responsibility on the State, including the Department and the Government, to ensure that when the crews we send out in the worst seas, in the worst conditions and in the worst weather raise very serious safety issues, fatigue issues and workers' rights issues, they and their representative trade unions are listened to. We ask again that the Minister would intervene, notwithstanding what has been said here about the role of the regulator. There is a role for the regulator, but as importantly, there is a role for the Government.

Sentiment score: -0.00