Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 7 March 2006
138 Mr. Howlin asked the Minister for Transport his response to the suggestion that a confidential reporting system for pilots be introduced here to facilitate the reporting of unsafe practices by airlines; his intention to facilitate this by the introduction of whistleblower legislation in the transport sector; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [9194/06]
Amharc ar fhreagraI refer the Deputy to my reply to a similar question, for written reply, on 16 February 2006. In that reply I stated that my Department was in the process of transposing an EU directive on mandatory occurrence reporting, directive 2003/42/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 13 June 2003 on occurrence reporting in civil aviation, into domestic legislation. There is an optional provision for voluntary reporting of incidents that do not come under the requirement for compulsory reporting in this directive. My Department will examine the feasibility of establishing such for the whole Irish aviation system to include operators, air traffic management providers, maintenance and airport personnel.
I also indicated that under the provisions of the Irish Aviation Authority orders, airlines, as a condition of an air operators certificate are obliged to report all aviation safety related occurrences to the Irish Aviation Authority or in certain cases to the air accident investigation unit of my Department.
