Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 13 March 2013
51. Deputy Pearse Doherty asked the Minister for Finance if he will provide a breakdown of where the 26,000 employed in aviation according to the jobs action plan work that is airport workers, manufacturing, leasing and so on. [13164/13]
View answerThe Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport have advised my Department that the Action Plan for Jobs 2013 refers to a report by Oxford Economics which quotes an estimate of 26,000 directly employed in the air transport industry in Ireland. That report provides a limited breakdown of this figure stating that airlines registered in Ireland directly employ 10,000 people and that aviation ground-based infrastructure employs 16,000 people. (The report categorises ground-based infrastructure as including facilities serving passengers such as baggage handling, ticketing, retail and catering, air navigation, etc).
As Minister for Finance I fully support initiatives to support the aviation sector. The Deputy may be aware that as part of the Government approach to the aviation sector, my Department have committed to conducting a review of the tax code to establish the feasibility of providing tax incentives for specific forms of aircraft financing, for example, enhanced equipment trust certificates.
In addition, officials from my Department are active members of the Shannon Aviation Business Development Task Force which is reviewing the potential of the aviation sector in Ireland.
