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PILOTS ACROSS THE EU will now have at least two days a week rest twice a month after new rules were adopted today.
The provision is part of a raft of new rules brought in by European legislators which they say is aimed at improving crew protection against fatigue but some unions and MEPs have raised doubt about their effectiveness.
The regulations are expected to come into force at the end of 2013 and will become fully applicable two years later.
Other regulations include:
The Irish Airline Pilots Association had lobbied strongly against the new rules saying that they could effectively increase the amount of time pilots would have to fly in some member states.
The British Airline Pilots Association (Balpa) have also been critical of the entire process saying that although the regulations improve on the standards of some EU member states, they do not match up to UK safety standards.
“This has been a botched process by the EU from start to finish”, Balpa said in a statement.
Passengers and pilots deserve flight safety rules based on rigorous science and evidence, not secret dodgy deal making in Strasbourg, which will mean that Britain no longer has the safest skies in Europe.
For example, Balpa say there will be no limit on the number of “early starts” which usually require pilots to be at the airport between 5am and 7am, they say the UK standard in this area is at most three “early starts” in a row.
Speaking to radioep.ie earlier today, Labour MEP for Dublin Emer Costello said that she too was disappointed by the vote saying that there was confusion across the chamber before voting:
There was an announcement this morning that there was an agreement with unions which is disputed by other unions. I think it may have been better to defer the vote until we received clarification. Unfortunately there was a vote to defer the vote, unfortunately that wasn’t approved either, we moved to the vote and MEPs have approved the commissions proposals.
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Can I have my money back now
It’s like’…..burning your furniture – to keep warm!
Why are PwC saying this instead of IBRC and NAMA?
As property prices start to rise nama , ibrc start to dump property
Can someone explain why?
Dumping loans philip, not property. They’re Dumping the loans as they’re non-performing and want to get them off the balance sheet.
If they had the patience, they’d put arrangements in place to allow the properties to return to positive equity and then seek a sale, this recouping more of the tax payers money.
Unfortunately, they’ll sell the loans for a discount and allow the new purchasers to do this and net a tidy profit.
The article outlines that IBRC (IBROKE would probably be a better name) will offload € 15 billion in loans.
Yet the linked article tells us that IBROKE have already offloaded 90% of its loanbook, € 19.8 billion out of € 21.7 billion leaving just € 1.9 billion on hand.
This can only mean, if the previous article is correct, that it is NAMA that is offloading the majority of the loans.
Why the subterfuge?
Why make people think that this is some kind of joint enterprise when it is NAMA that is leading the charge?
Have the shiny suit brigade from the canal something to hide?
Given their obsession with secrecy it would not surprise me if they have, perhaps selling the loans to some preferred customer with an inside track at a serious discount.
The way things go it will all be wrapped up before we know anything, plus ça change.
Who in their right mind would buy this junk?
It might only be worth 30% of face value but if you buy it for 20% it’s a good deal. For the buyer anyway.
@ Irish Revolution
The Banks?
Hedge funds bought it. They will now sell off all the ghost estates etc at a lower price so people that have houses for sale at the min will eventually have to sell for half or take them off the market.
Fab house here in drogheda asking price €325. Hilarious. You could now nearly get a house for that on raglan road or ailsbury road!! So that house is realistically worth less than €150 really.
People and notions ha
What about Bank of Scotland selling on my mortgage & others in their Irish portfolio to a company called Tanager Ltd.
I’m in a tizzy all day because I don’t know what it means for us.
have your say