A Chathaoirligh, a chomh-Sheanadóirí agus a dhaoine uaisle, is cúis áthais dom teacht in bhur measc ar an ócáid seo agus an Bille an-tábhachtach seo á chur faoi bhráid an tSeanaid. Táim ag súil go mbainfidh sibh taithneamh as an díospóireacht agus go gcuirfimid acht an-tábhachtach in áit.
The principal purpose of this Bill is to provide for the establishment of a new State owned company called the Irish Aviation Authority. The Bill will transform the Air Navigation Services Office of our Department, ANSO as it is known, from a Civil Service agency to a commercial semi-State body. Through the Air Navigation Services Office, the Minister discharges his responsibility for regulating Irish aviation safety standards and for controlling Irish airspace. This Bill is designed to ensure that the vital services which ANSO provides to aviation are enhanced by giving the new authority the capacity to meet the aviation industry's need for high quality, cost effective services.
This new authority, subject to the general constraints on semi-State bodies, will have the flexibility and autonomy in operational, staffing and investment matters to meet the needs of its many users. In a wider European context, the creation of the Irish Aviation Authority is part of an evolutionary process that aviation is currently going through at both national and international levels. Like Ireland, many European administrations are now reassigning their air traffic control and airspace management organisations to more autonomous bodies as part of a broader strategy to resolve European air traffic congestion problems.
Irish aviation is going through fairly severe turbulence at present. The need to contain costs, to maximise revenues, to maintain safety standards and to meet the requirements of the market place inevitably produces strain. In this respect, we are not unique as the aviation industry throughout the world is also going through testing times. The parliamentary debate on this Bill will, I hope, help to inform, broaden and enlighten the present public debate on the Irish aviation industry.
Although having a relatively low public profile, ANSO is central to the aviation industry in Ireland and it also plays a significant role in international aviation. I trust the House will bear with me if I take the opportunity briefly and broadly to sketch the background against which this Bill has been framed and set out the thinking which underlies the provisions of the Bill.
Currently ANSO employs nearly 600 staff who are mainly located at our State airports. ANSO staff comprise air traffic controllers, electronic engineers, radio officers, flight operations and airworthiness experts, together with a small number of administrative staff.
The day-to-day functions of ANSO involve highly complex and technical work. We can see the results of this work in the number of aircraft using our airspace. We can also see it in the safety record of the Irish aviation industry. In such specialised work, ANSO operates to the highest international standards, as required by the Minister. I am sure the House will appreciate that such technical work does not require the direct personal intervention of the Minister.
For two decades or so the general trend of Government administration has been to separate policy and executive functions. Thereby, Government can concentrate on making and shaping policy. The corollary of this is that the executive bodies can concentrate on their specific functions which are, of course, conducted in accordance with policy, as defined by Government.
ANSO is an example of the type of executive organisation which would benefit from the flexibility of semi-State body status. ANSO, by definition, must have the capacity to focus rapidly on and effectively serve the needs of the aviation industry. Rapid and effective reaction to market needs is not a notable quality of Civil Service administrative or operating systems.
ANSO's customers or users, as they are usually described, are mainly the world's commercial airlines who demand and are entitled to quality services at competitive costs. That is what the Irish Aviation Authority, operating as a fully commercial body, is designed to give them. ANSO has performed exceptionally well over the past few years. Irish safety standards are internationally accepted as being of the highest order, as is the manner in which we manage and operate our airspace.
As I mentioned earlier, world aviation is in turmoil at present. Order books for new aircraft are being shortened and this reflects the gigantic losses being incurred by some of the world's major airlines. Looked at from a world perspective, it would be easy to be dismayed and pessimistic about the future of the aviation industry.
However, pessimism about aviation would be misplaced as there is another side to the coin. Since the last war aviation has gone through a regular series of booms and slumps. The notable feature of these cycles is the underlying long run growth trends in air traffic, passengers and freight.
Our job as legislators must be to create the conditions and structures from which we can meet our air transport needs and exploit the opportunities which the world air transport industry can offer. The creation of the new Irish Aviation Authority is part of our strategy. It will keep Ireland to the forefront in vital services, such as the regulation of safety standards and in air traffic control. Moreover, we are giving the authority the capability to engage in associated activities, such as training and consultancy work. These are the growth areas where there are opportunities for profit, especially in the emerging markets in Asia and eastern Europe.
However, I must emphasise that the principal reason for setting up the new authority is not to make profits, but to improve the efficiency of services to the aviation industry in a dynamic and rapidly changing environment. ANSO has two main businesses — the regulation of aviation safety standards and the operation of air navigation services. In 1992 total ANSO turnover on a commercial basis amounted to more than £40 million, of which more than 80 per cent came from foreign airlines, many of which never touch down on Irish soil.
Safety and public confidence in safety standards is the bedrock on which international civil aviation is based. Our Government is conscious of public concern about safety and I emphasise there is no question of safety standards being in any way compromised for commercial reasons. Irish aviation safety standards are based on the highest international and European standards as set down by the International Civil Aviation Organisation and the European Joint Aviation Authorities.
Irish safety standards are applied to and cover the 500 aircraft on our national register, 2,000 licensed pilots, 3,000 certified aircraft maintenance personnel, a dozen aircraft operating companies and some 75 maintenance organisations. Of the 500 aircraft on the register, more than 110 are large public transport aircraft. Approximately half of this fleet comprises GPA aircraft, most of which operate in countries spread across the globe from South America to Asia.
Concern has been expressed at the fact that we are combining both regulatory and operational functions in a single authority. Both I and the Government recognise that these are real concerns which cannot be lightly dismissed. A strong regulatory environment is a key requirement in developing the aviation industry in Ireland. The prospects for companies such as GPA and TEAM Aer Lingus are directly dependent on having a strong regulatory environment. The prospects for those firms would be immeasurably poorer if there was an inadequate regulatory environment or one which could not react quickly to the changes in the market. Without question, to combine regulatory and operational functions in one organisation is not always the desirable solution. The fact that there is a relatively small area of overlap between both functions does not override the principle that both functions should where practicable be separately discharged. However, we have to ask, are there practicable alternatives?
There are three possible alternatives to combining both functions in one single organisation. The alternatives would be either to create two separate organisations, to leave the regulatory functions with the Minister or to combine that regulatory function with some other separate existing organisation.
We have ruled out the question of combining the regulatory function with another organisation. We did so on the grounds that the Minister for Transport must always remain directly responsible for public safety policy and standards. To put the regulatory function in another organisation, at the very least, would have obscured that direct line of ministerial control and public accountability which we feel is absolutely essential.
The question of setting up the regulatory function in a separate organisation such as occurs in many larger countries was also considered but discarded. It is very doubtful that, in Ireland, a separate organisation for the regulatory function would be either large enough or strong enough to carry out an effective regulatory role. We do not have the densities of pilots, aircraft, manufacturing industry or traffic which our larger neighbours have. The probability therefore is that the regulatory function as a separate organisation would have to be guaranteed if not funded by the taxpayers. Funding of the regulatory function by the taxpayer would be neither fair nor justified.
Finally, there was the possibility of the regulatory function being retained by the Minister. There is much to commend this approach. However, operating within Civil Service structures and strictures, we have over the years found it very difficult to recruit and retain highly skilled regulatory experts. Thus we finally came to the conclusion that, however desirable, keeping the regulatory function in our Department was not a viable proposition. Having carefully come to these conclusions, we were left with no option but to combine both the regulatory and operational and regulatory functions. We have of course seen that this will require special measures to ensure that conflicts of interest between the operational and regulatory functions will be minimised.
Due to the importance which Government attaches to the whole issue of the regulatory and operational functions and indeed to safety matters generally, we have made a number of unique provisions in this Bill. The most important of these is set out in section 32. This section provides that within three years of being established, the new authority will submit a report on the safety standards which it has implemented. The Minister for Transport will have those standards audited by outside independent experts and will repeat this exercise at least every three years.
I need hardly tell the House that in the unlikely event of an audit report on the authority's safety standards being less than favourable, the Minister has the power to direct any necessary improvement. As far as we know, this statutory requirement to report on safety standards and have them independently audited is unique. No other comparable organisation has such requirements. We are satisfied that this requirement — which is desirable anyway — will also allay any concerns which there may be about conflicts of interest between that authority's operational and regulatory functions.
Another unique provision included is in section 36. In establishing the new authority, we are very anxious that it should have a fully commercial character reflecting the ethos of the industry in which it operates. However, we have to also recognise that the authority has very important safety functions and responsibilities. Safety, in our view, must never be jeopardised for purely commercial reasons.
Section 36 provides that the board of the new authority, before making decisions on safety matters, must obtain and consider the opinion of its expert staff expressed through the chief executive officer. In the unlikely event that a decision by the board would, in the opinion of the chief executive officer, contravene technical or safety standards, the board must refrain from implementing its decision until the Minister is consulted and decides on the issue. Senators will see that section 36 provides very clear and precise procedures to handle what undoubtedly may be a difficult situation. The fact that we have set out these procedures and included them in this Bill is a measure of our commitment to ensuring that safety standards are upheld and that, in the final analysis, the Minister decides on both the policy and the standards.
I can assure the House that we are determined to ensure that the highest safety standards will continue to be applied in Irish aviation. That commitment is necessary both for our own travelling public and for those who travel in aircraft that are maintained or operated by Irish companies or who travel through Irish airspace. I must mention the fact that the Minister will retain responsibility for accident investigation. This is especially important as it could well be that either the regulatory or operational sides of the authority or both might be implicated in the causes of the accident. It would in those circumstances be entirely unacceptable for the authority to conduct investigation into such accidents.
In this connection, I also mention sections 33 and 34 which, though not safety related, are nevertheless provisions that merit attention. These provisions set out very clear guidelines in relation to conflicts of interest for both staff and board members. Persons found in contravention of these sections will be guilty of an offence for which severe penalties are provided.
There are some other unique features in relation to this new semi-State body which I should also mention. I am referring particularly to the powers which the authority will have to make secondary legislation and to prosecute offences. These powers are quite unique for a commercial semi-State body. The grant of these powers to the authority shows the Government's intention that the authority will have all the tools which it needs to do its work.
At this stage I want to turn to the commercial focus of the new authority. The biggest segment of business for ANSO, as it will be for the new authority, is the provision of air navigation and aeronautical communications services. In 1992, these services accounted for turnover of nearly £37 million. These revenues of £37 million account for more than 90 per cent of ANSO revenues. Broadly the services which ANSO provides include the control of Irish airspace and the provisions of communications links between aircraft in international airspace on the north Atlantic and air traffic control in Prestwick, Scotland.
The north Atlantic communications service is provided from the aeronautical communications station at Ballygirreen, County Clare where there are more than 100 staff employed who are mainly radio officers. That station had revenues of over £7 million in 1992 from charges of £36 levied on each aircraft using our system.
Closer to home within the boundaries of Irish airspace the basic air navigation service figures are quite simple. Irish controlled airspace covers more than 100,000 square miles — three times our land surface area — and stretches out to a distance of some 200 miles around our coasts. Irish airspace occupies an important strategic position on the north Atlantic air routes. Almost 80 per cent of the traffic between the US and Europe crosses Irish airspace.
The air navigation services provided by ANSO and which will be provided by the new authority after vesting day are provided on a cost-recovery basis. The charges for services are determined in accordance with principles set down by the international civil aviation organisation. These principles require that charges be assessed on a cost-recovery basis only. They allow for the remuneration of the necessary capital but do not permit aviation authorities to set their prices so as to make profits.
Shannon is the principal centre in Ireland for the control of air traffic entering or exiting from the north Atlantic air routes. The importance of the Shannon centre is internationally recognised in that under its control transatlantic flights make the transition from continental European airways systems to and from the north Atlantic oceanic track systems. Shannon is also responsible for handling much of the domestic traffic from Cork and the regional airports. The Dublin air traffic centre controls Irish air traffic to and from Britain and the Continent. As I said earlier, aircraft which use our airspace and air navigation facilities must pay for the costs that we incur in providing these vital services.
Each of our air traffic control centres is fully equipped with the most modern radar and communications technology which enables us to handle both current and projected traffic levels. In 1992 there were more than 300,000 aircraft movements through Irish controlled airspace. Of these, slightly more than 120,000 landed at or took off from Irish airports. The importance of Irish airspace is shown by the fact that there were approximately 200,000 aircraft movements which were en route between the US and Europe and which neither landed nor took off in Ireland. All of these flights are charged for the use of Irish airspace facilities. In 1992 they accounted for nearly £30 million of ANSO revenues, not to mention the 200 jobs which they provide in the Shannon area. The charges which we levy are calculated on a complex formula involving the weight of the aircraft and the distance flown. Taking these employment and revenue figures for Shannon with those for Ballygirreen, we have over 300 jobs in the Clare/Limerick area. These figures underline that our airspace is a valuable national asset.
At one time or another, all of the major world airlines use our airspace on transatlantic crossings. It will give the House an indication of the nature of the business when I tell Senators that in 1992 Aer Lingus came fifth among the top ten users of our airspace. A less happy statistic is the fact that of our top ten airspace user airlines, only one made a profit in 1992. I mention the latter point because we are modestly proud of the fact that our charges on aircraft using our en route airspace services are the third lowest in the 16 nation European route charging system operated by Eurocontrol, the European air traffic control agency.
The economic and cost effective rates being charged to users by ANSO will, we hope, ensure that we will retain and expand our current traffic levels. Certainly this will be an objective of the Irish Aviation Authority. How and where will the Aviation Authority fit into the context of the aviation industry in Ireland? The new Aviation Authority will control the airspace and regulate safety standards. The airports at which aircraft land and take off are operated by Aer Rianta in the case of the State airports; the regional airports are privately owned. Aer Lingus and various other companies operate airlines. Firms such as TEAM Aer Lingus provide aircraft maintenance and overhaul services. The airports, airlines and the aircraft maintenance firms all operate to technical safety standards currently set by ANSO and, in future, to be set by the new authority.
Against the background of the problems of Aer Lingus and GPA, the House might feel that this is not the most auspicious time for new ventures. I disagree. There are problems in the aviation industry and these are being tackled and must be resolved with considered, practical policies.
As Minister, my aim is and must be to ensure that aviation is a safe, cost competitive and commercially viable industry which will grow and develop thus contributing to our overall goals of wealth generation and job creation. The creation of the new Irish Aviation Authority is a firm plank in the strategy of the evolutionary process in the aviation industry. To summarise, our policy in relation to the services which are currently being provided by ANSO is to ensure the safety of aviation in the public interest and in compliance with our international obligations, to facilitate access to Ireland by air and to maximise the financial and employment benefits to our country.
Turning now to the general structure of the Bill, I propose to outline the general approach which we took to the task of setting up the new authority. We started from the standpoint that what was required was a commercial semi-State body to which could be transferred the Minister's rights, powers and authority relevant to air navigation and safety services. The latter functions are set out in the Air Navigation and Transport Acts and the Eurocontrol Acts. The commercial semi-State body model which we have used is broadly on the same lines as other bodies established in recent years. Thus the Irish Aviation Authority will be a limited company established under the Companies Acts and having a nine person board to be appointed by the Minister.
The company will operate in accordance with approved memorandum and articles of association. At this stage, although no final decision has been taken, it is expected that January 1 next will be set as the vesting day when the new authority will officially commence operations. The directors and staff of the new company and its subsidiaries will be subject to general controls in relation to such matters as conflicts of interest and disclosure of confidential information. The provisions in relation to disclosure of interests are in line with the code of practice for semi-State bodies issued last year by the Minister for Finance.
Under the Bill the company will be empowered to invest in associated companies or to establish subsidiaries. As is normal practice in semi-State bodies, the authority will be required to furnish the Minister with copies of its annual report and accounts. The appointment of the company's auditor will be subject to the approval of the Minister with the consent of the Minister for Finance.
The airline industry, which is the authority's main customer, is extremely cost conscious. As I mentioned, most of the authority's main customers have been losing money. It is important, therefore, that the airlines as well as the Government should have a clear picture of the cost and financing of air navigation and safety. As part of the strategy for the future, ANSO management will continue to build on the good relations with its users. In this connection it is intended that regular and constructive consultation with the users will be a feature of the business approach to be adopted by the Irish Aviation Authority.
The capital of the new authority will correspond to the assets which the company takes over and these, mainly equipment and current assets, will amount to a value of some £30 million. These assets will be funded by a mixture of debt and equity. The proportions of share capital and debt finance will be determined between the Minister for Transport and the Minister for Finance and these proportions will be settled closer to vesting day. One thing which I should make clear is that setting up the new authority will not require new investment by the Exchequer.
The Bill also provides that the land and buildings used by ANSO may be either transferred or leased to the Authority. I expect that leasing will generally be the more appropriate arrangement. There is no reason to fragment the ownership of the State airports, for example, by transferring the air traffic control centres to the new authority as the remainder of the airports will still be the property of the Minister. The new authority will operate as a going concern from vesting day. It will collect and pay to the Minister any sums due for services provided by ANSO before vesting day and these arrangements are covered in the transitional provisions.
The new authority will be able to fund future capital acquisitions from its charges. A borrowing capacity of £100 million for both working capital and long term capital purposes is being provided, subject to the usual conditions. Of this borrowing capacity of £100 million, up to £80 million will be open to being guaranteed by the Minister for Finance. It has been said that the borrowing and guarantee limits are unduly large and might expose the Exchequer unnecessarily. These are always matters for judgment and some crystal ball gazing.
At present we are on the threshold of a new era in air navigation services. Within the next decade, satellites, synthetic radar and advanced computing techniques will revolutionise airspace and air traffic management. It is foreseen too that new organisational, institutional and financing arrangements may be subsequently necessary. At this stage it is premature to predict what the impact of these technologies and systems will have for the authority. One thing, however, is certain: the new authority must be prepared to meet the many challenges that lie ahead. At present the projected capital expenditure for the authority to the end of the decade is estimated at £60 million. This will let us maintain and gradually update our systems. However, we need to be ready for more than just a "steady as she goes" situation.
The advent of the jet aircraft over a very short space of time, in the late 1950s and early 1960s, revolutionised air traffic. The new technology I have mentioned may be about to do so again and I can assure the House that we do not intend to be left behind. Thus we have set the capital borrowing limits at levels which will ensure that the authority will be able to meet the challenges that lie ahead.
I should also mention, in relation to the commercial character of the new authority, that the provisions in the Bill are in line with the decisions taken by Government on the reports of the Industrial Policy Review Group, more commonly known as the Culliton and Moriarty reports. ANSO has already done some work on the development of its commercial mission statement and clear international benchmarks are given by the rates the authority will charge for its services. These rates can be readily compared with the unit charges levied by other administrations for air navigation service.
The Bill, in section 45, provides that where the Minister directs the new authority to exempt aircraft, such as search and rescue aircraft, from charges for services, the Minister will pay the costs involved. As the authority, in its role as the regulatory body, will be making orders which have the force of law and because it will be a monopoly provider of services, the Government excluded the possibility of private ownership. If in the future the Government were to decide that any of the core functions of the new authority should be carried out by the private sector the whole question would have to be brought back to the Oireachtas for debate and decision.
I should mention that the Bill has been amended since first being published to provide that any new powers which the Minister might give to it will have to be confirmed by an affirmative decision of the Oireachtas. This is an aspect to which I will return later.
This Bill provides for the transfer of ANSO staff to the new authority. Concerns expressed by the staff in relation to security of tenure in their new employment have been taken into account in the drafting of the Bill and will, I believe, satisfy all sides. Special provision has been made in relation to the Exchequer's accumulated liabilities for staff pensions. The Bill provides in section 41 that the Exchequer will pay to the authority's superannuation fund over a seven year period an amount to discharge the Exchequer's liability. I should add that for many years ANSO users have been directly funding the Exchequer's liabilities to ANSO staff.
Concerns have been expressed that the Exchequer's liabilities to the staff should be discharged more quickly than the seven years provided for in the Bill. I have a lot of sympathy with that approach. It might surprise some people that the Minister for Finance also would like to discharge and dispose of the Exchequer's liabilities as soon as possible. However, we must be practical.
We have taken an initial actuarial evaluation of the Exchequer liability and the figures indicate that it will be of the order of £60 million plus. As the House will appreciate, this is a substantial sum that could not readily be discharged over one or two years. Even over the proposed seven-year period when interest payments are taken into account there will be a need for contributions of the order of between £9 million and £12 million per annum.
I hope that when the Estimates for 1994 are published it will show the commitment by the Exchequer to annual payments in order to discharge the liability. The possibility was raised that the Minister for Finance might defer meeting his liability until the seventh year and then at that stage amend the legislation because the liability had grown so much. That is possible. However, the Minister for Finance cannot escape his financial liabilities. It has also been suggested that until the Minister for Finance makes his contribution there will be no funds to meet the pensions or lump sums of staff who retire in the meantime. This is a fallacy. From the day it commences operations the new authority will be putting aside substantial sums of the order of 20 per cent of the payroll to cover superannuation costs.
Finally, to allay remaining concerns that staff may have, the authority's pension scheme and fund will be subject to the requirements of the Pensions Board. This will ensure the adequacy of the fund to meet existing and potential pension requirements.
The stage is now set for the conclusion of the discussions with the trade unions and staff interests regarding the transfer of ANSO staff to the new aviation authority. A point which perhaps I should make is that the authority will be specifically excluded form the provisions of the worker participation Acts. I have mentioned at length the need to avoid conflicts of interest at an organisational level between the operational and regulatory functions of the new authority. As the House appreciates, it is a complex problem. I would be especially concerned at the conflict of interest for staff members elected to the board and for the board itself which could arise from the different roles of the authority. One could envisage a situation where a member of the operational staff was licensed by the regulatory staff and serving on the board. I am sure that I do not have to go any further to spell out all the potential conflicts of interest involved in such a scenario, with the added complication of casting doubts on safety standards. The position we have adopted is practical not ideological. We have removed from the Bill a prohibition on a ministerial appointment of a staff member to the board. However, I can assure the House that I will be strongly recommending to the new authority that appropriate staff participative arrangements are made at sub-board level.
I have given a wide but brief resumé of the general corporate structure proposed in the Bill. I should now like to mention the quasi-monopoly nature of the authority and the concurrent concern that in the absence of competition it might fail adequately to control its charges. I recognise such concerns and obviously the authority will have to pay attention to them. However, it would be impracticable to have more than one provider of air navigation services or aviation regulatory services.
The new authority may be a monopoly in Ireland. However, it must operate in an international arena, often in competition with similar national authorities. Aviation is an international business and if the new authority's charges are out of line or their services inadequate it will quickly become clear and it would have to rectify the situation immediately.
Other provisions to which I should refer are those at sections 62 and 63. Provision is made in these sections whereby the new authority will under certain conditions represent Ireland in international for a concerned with air navigation services and safety matters. These provisions recognise the essentially international nature of the business in which the new authority will be involved and provide a framework within which the new authority can operate effectively.
Turning to the technical provisions in the Bill I should reiterate that civil aviation as an international business is regulated in accordance with international standards. Worldwide aviation is governed by the Chicago Convention on International Civil Aviation. All states who are party to the Chicago convention adopt a uniform approach to the regulation of aviation safety and as far as practicable provide services and facilities to agreed international standards. The Air Navigation and Transport Act, 1946 as amended by the Air Navigation and Transport Act, 1950 provided for the Chicago convention and its annexes to come into operation in Ireland. Those Acts empowered the Minister to make any orders, regulations or directions necessary to give effect to them.
The new authority will be similarly empowered to make orders and regulations and give directions giving effect to the ICOA annexes assigned to it in the schedule. As I mentioned earlier, any extension of the remit of the authority, for example, by giving it responsibility for new annexes, will have to have the affirmative approval of both Houses of the Oireachtas. Any orders and regulations which the authority makes on purely technical matters will be treated in the same way as ministerial orders are now, that is to say they will be laid before both Houses of the Oireachtas and may be annulled by a resolution of either House.
The Minister will retain responsibility for Ireland's compliance with the provisions of the convention as a whole and for the other ICOA annexes which deal with the meteorological services, search and rescue, aircraft accident investigation and security. These annexes which I have mentioned will not be the responsibility of the new authority. The Minister will also be responsible for the annex governing the facilitation of travellers in relation to customs and related matters.
It will be the responsibility of the new Irish Aviation Authority to give effect to the standards and recommended practices set out in the annexes to the ICOA which are listed in the schedule to the Bill. These annexes deal with personnel licensing, the rules of the air, aeronautical charts, the units of measurement to be used in ground and air operations, the operation of aircraft, aircraft nationality and registration marks, the airworthiness of aircraft, aeronautical telecommunications, air traffic services, aerodromes, aeronautical information services, environmental protection and the safe transport of dangerous goods by air. That, I am sure the House will agree, is a full and wide list of responsibilities.
In practical terms the new authority will manage the national airspace and provide air traffic control services and communications. It will also apply the standards for the regulation of aviation safety, for example, in licensing aviation personnel and certifying that aircraft are airworthy and in the orders and regulations governing the operation of aircraft and the safety aspect of aerodromes. From the point of view of the general public the transfer of these functions to the new authority will make no immediate difference. However, I hope that for the aviation industry the authority with its greater managerial autonomy will be in a position to be more responsive to the air industry's needs not just for services but also for accountability.
At this point I want to refer specifically to a recent controversy that this Bill will interfere with, or that the authority will dispense with, the services of the national Meteorological Service. I am therefore taking this opportunity briefly to sketch the situation as it is now and as it will be in the future. As the House will be aware, weather information is of critical importance to all aspects of flight operations. That importance is recognised by the fact that one of the annexes to the Chicago convention — annex 3 — is devoted to the whole question of aviation meteorology. The House will note that the new authority will not be taking responsibility for aviation meteorology.
Under the Chicago Convention, each State must designate the Meteorological Authority, which will provide meteorology services for international air navigation. In Ireland, that Authority is the Minister for Transport, Energy and Communications and the Irish Meteorological Service is part of his Department. The full cost — nearly £5 million per annum — of the weather services, which are provided by our Met Service to ANSO, and later on to the new Authority, will continue to be recouped from the users.
The Irish Aviation Authority Bill excludes the Aviation Authority from responsibility for meteorological services and leaves them with the Minister. The Irish Aviation Authority will need weather information from the Irish Met Service to carry out its air traffic control responsibilities. While I appreciate the concerns there may be in the Met Service, the fact is that this Bill focuses on the new Authority, what it will be, what it will do, the powers which it will have and the general framework of ministerial authority under which it will operate. The new authority, freed from the constraints of the Civil Service, will operate in a more businesslike and commercial manner, to the immediate benefit of the aviation industry and ultimately to the benefit of the travelling public.
Apart from the Chicago Convention, the new authority will also be responsible for giving effect to other international agreements, to which Ireland is a party, in so far as they relate to matters which are within its competence. The principal agreements which are relevant here are the requirements of the Joint Aviation Authorities of Europe and the Eurocontrol Convention. The Joint Aviation Authorities of Europe, know as the JAA, is a body formed by the various European authorities responsible for the safety and regulatory aspects of aviation. The JAA has been developing for a number of years and has gradually widened its remit from being concerned purely with airworthiness matters to the area of aircraft operations. It is also defining specific technical standards to give effect to EC Directives in personnel licensing and other areas. We welcome the development of a joint European approach and standards and, like ANSO, the new Irish Aviation Authority will participate fully in the work of the JAA.
The Eurocontrol Convention, which originated in 1960, is designed to assist member states to co-ordinate air traffic services and facilities and the management of the flow of air traffic in order to ensure the most effective utilisation of their airspace. There are currently 15 Eurocontrol member states including most states in the EC. By the end of this decade it is expected that there will be up to 20 member states in Eurocontrol including some, like Hungary, which is already a member, from Eastern Europe. We welcome the expansion of Eurocontrol membership. It symbolises Europe's determination to deal with its air traffic problems.
As the House is aware, air traffic congestion in European airspace has become an all too common and inconvenient problem in recent years. It is an extremely complex situation which ranges over issues such as national sovereignty, equipment, operation systems and procedures. In 1988 European Ministers for Transport took an initiative by defining a strategy to resolve European air traffic congestion problems. Eurocontrol was designated as the organisation with responsibility for implementing the strategy. Eurocontrol has developed a comprehensive plan to upgrade the air traffic system through the European air traffic control harmonisation and integration programme — a project known by the acronym "EATCHIP".
The EATCHIP project is a radical plan, aimed at creating a seamless air traffic control system covering European airspace through harmonising the many disparate systems and eventually integrating them. I am pleased to say that ANSO, by investment in staff and equipment over the past five years, has ensured that Irish air traffic control systems and procedures are fully compatible with the requirements of the EATCHIP programme.
As the House will be aware from my earlier remarks, Irish controlled airspace is a valuable national asset. It is vital that Ireland maintains its air traffic control systems and procedures at the forefront of European developments. Our airspace is a small but vital one, being at the interface between the North Atlantic and European systems. The House should be under no illusion: should we fail to provide the vital services required, or should the cost of those services be excessive, then international civil aviation will bypass us, either by re-routing or by reducing the airspace delegated to our control.
In conclusion, I wish to emphasise my conviction that the passing of this Bill, and the establishment of the Irish Aviation Authority will facilitate access by air to Ireland and promote the safety of navigation in Irish airspace. This will benefit our aviation industry and ultimately the entire country. I commend the Bill to the House and I look forward to the various contributions on this important and strategic Bill at a crucial time for Irish aviation.
