With regard to courses undertaken by personnel in their own time, Air Corps personnel may apply for consideration for funding under the refund of fees scheme, on the same basis as all other members of the Permanent Defence Force. This scheme is operated on the same principles which are applied to funding of "own time" courses in the public service in general. The military authorities advise that a figure of £7,500 has been allocated for refunds to Air Corps personnel under this scheme in the current academic year. A similar amount has been allocated for the Naval Service. The total allocation for the PDF under this heading in the current academic year is £56,000.
A recent initiative is the promotion of foreign language study in the Defence Forces. A provisional budget of £10,000 has been provided for personnel who wish to undertake language education in any of the target foreign languages. Expenditure for Air Corps personnel on such training will be determined by the number of applications received from that Corps, as will be the case in the PDF in general.
Funding for the education and training of Defence Forces personnel has, as its primary focus, the specific organisational needs and military requirements of the various branches of the Defence Forces. In the case of Air Corps personnel, many of the specialist "in-service" training requirements, such as pilot training, air traffic control training and technical aviation training, already involve a very considerable financial investment by the Department from public funds. This training and related service in the Air Corps also provide the recipients with very marketable qualifications and work experience. Indeed, a special service commitment scheme was introduced for certain Air Corps pilot officers in order to provide an incentive for the continued retention of such key operational personnel in service. In general, Air Corps personnel, in common with other Defence Forces personnel, are assigned to third level training where the specific training needs of the Air Corps indicate a requirement for such training and qualifications.
