Vol. 556 No. 4
76 Mr. McGinley asked the Minister for Defence the arrangements being made to provide the Air Corps with additional helicopters in view of the fact that the Sikorsky helicopter deal has been terminated; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [20454/02]
The decision last July to cancel the tender competition for the acquisition of medium lift helicopters for the Air Corps was taken due to budgetary constraints which meant that defence expenditure had to be reduced this year. The decision was an extremely difficult one. The Minister considered the acquisition of the helicopters for the Air Corps as a priority. He was aware of the effort that had been put into the tender process by Air Corps personnel and of their disappointment when the decision not to proceed was announced. When the decision was made, the Minister asked his officials to initiate a review of the provision of helicopter services, in conjunction with the Department of Communications, Marine and Natural Resources, to determine how best to meet the State's search and rescue obligations, while taking account of the current financial position. An interdepartmental working group has been established to seek alternate solutions to the funding issue, such as public private partnerships or leasing arrangements, with a view to providing helicopters for the Air Corps by other means. The PPP unit in the Department of Finance is also involved in assessing possible solutions and this work is at an early stage.
The Minister is adamant that the Air Corps will be involved in search and rescue in the long-term. A decision has been taken, in consultation with the Irish Coast Guard, to lease a medium lift helicopter for three years. The helicopter will be operated by Air Corps pilots from Sligo Airport, beginning early next year, and the training of Air Corps personnel is under way in that regard. Despite the fact that expenditure programmes have to be prioritised, the Minister will not allow anything to take precedence over the long-term development of the Air Corps' most important resource, its pilots. The main priority for the Air Corps is the purchase of fixed wing training aircraft. The tender competition for the acquisition of eight trainer aircraft is going well and the Minister hopes to be in a position to make a substantive announcement on the award of the contract before the end of the year.
