I am pleased to appear before the committee to put forward for consideration the Defence and Army pensions Estimates for 2003. The combined Estimates amount to a net figure of over €870 million which is a substantial amount of Exchequer funds.
There has been an unprecedented level of investment in equipment and facilities for the Defence Forces in recent years. This has taken place in the context of a modernisation process which was mapped out in the first ever White Paper on Defence, published in 2000. The White Paper set out the Government's medium term strategy for the period up to 2010 based on the evolving national and international security environment. One of the key goals of the White Paper development programme was to provide significant additional resources for equipment and infrastructure to enable the Defence Forces to carry out the tasks, both at home and abroad, required of them by Government. These additional resources were put in place as a consequence of the Government's decision that 100% of the pay savings arising from the re-organisation of the Defence Forces set out in the White Paper, together with 100% of the net proceeds from the sale of surplus properties, would be re-allocated for investment in modern equipment and facilities.
From 1997 to the end of 2002 more than €150 million has been expended on the capital investment programme for the upgrade of barracks accommodation and facilities. During the same period expenditure on non-capital maintenance works amounted to some €50 million. The results of this expenditure are now to be seen in many parts of the country. In particular, the Defence Forces training centre at the Curragh Camp, has benefited to the tune of more than €60 million expended on new works. This year's defence Estimate includes a further sum of €23.6 million for capital works and almost €10 million for maintenance works.
For the committee's information, major projects completed in 2002 at the Curragh were: a new combat support college, €6.9 million; new vehicle garaging, €4.6 million and an NCOs' mess, €4.35 million. At Casement Aerodrome projects completed were an upgrade of runways, €6.3 million and a new 3rd support wing headquarters, €3 million. At Collins Barracks, Cork, a new gym costing €2.7 million was completed.
Projects currently in progress and due for completion this year include: Curragh, combined vehicle workshops, €9 million; Coolmoney Camp, accommodation, €1.2 million; Athlone, new armoury, €1.9 million; Dún Uí Mhaolíosa, Galway, new cookhouse/dining complex, €3.6 million; Cathal Brugha Barracks, upgrade of accommodation, €1.9 million; and McKee Barracks, upgrade of accommodation, €2 million.
Projects due to commence this year include: Curragh, special storage buildings, €3.5 million; naval base, new technical stores, €2.5 million; naval base, upgrade accommodation, €1.2 million; Sarsfield Barracks, Limerick, upgrade cookhouse and men's club, €1.8 million; Custume Barracks, Athlone, new NCOs' mess, €1.3 million.
It is Government policy that the Defence Forces should be fully equipped to undertake the roles assigned to them. For many years, the imbalance between the pay and non-pay allocation of resources led to a deficiency in the required levels of modern equipment. The re-balancing of this pay to non-pay expenditure ratio, which took place on foot of the White Paper, freed up resources for the acquisition of necessary equipment in recent years for the Army, the Air Corps, the Naval Service and the Reserve Defence Force.
A major acquisition for the Army has been the purchase of 40 Piranha armoured personnel carriers from Mowag of Switzerland. Deliveries commenced in 2001 and were completed in March 2002. The total value of that contract was about €51 million with payment spread over five years, including a final stage payment of €5 million in January of this year. Six of these APCs have been deployed with the contingent serving with the UN mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea. I am pleased to report that the APCs have performed exceptionally well in that role in what is a very challenging working environment for the vehicle. With their mobility and protection characteristics, the APCs provide an important additional security element for our personnel.
The original contract contained an option for the supply of up to 40 additional APCs by Mowag. This option has now been exercised, albeit for a reduced number, because of the changed financial situation. I signed a contract on 9 December 2002 for an additional 25 APCs consisting of 20 standard APCs, four command variants and one ambulance. The contract value is in the region of €33 million including VAT.
Deliveries will commence in March 2004 and are scheduled to be completed by September 2004. Payments under the contract extend from December 2002 to September 2005 due to the budgetary situation. On delivery, the Defence Forces will have a total of 65 Mowag APCs which meet their requirements in this regard. There has been significant investment in new vehicles for the Defence Forces, including specialist transport cargo vehicles and troop carrying vehicles. Ongoing programmes include the acquisition of additional night vision equipment and nuclear biological chemical equipment.
Substantial investment has been made in the Naval Service in recent years. The LE Niamh, which is a sister ship of the LE Róisín, was commissioned in September 2001. Like its sister ship, the new vessel cost over €25 million. Both ships have proved to be a tremendous asset to the Naval Service in carrying out its day to day roles.
The main priority for the Air Corps has been the purchase of fixed wing training aircraft. In that regard, I was delighted to sign a contract on 16 January 2003 for the supply of eight turbo propeller aircraft to replace the Siai Marchetti aircraft in the pilot training role. These aircraft will allow for the continued training of young cadets to the highest standard and are a very realistic response to the needs of the Air Corps at this time. The new aircraft is the Pilatus PC-9M, manufactured by Pilatus Aircraft Limited, Switzerland. The cost of the eight aircraft is approximately €60 million. Delivery of all the aircraft will take place during 2004. While these aircraft are being obtained primarily for pilot training, they will be capable of being armed and as such will have a limited defensive capability.
As the members will be aware, the tender competition for the acquisition of medium lift helicopters for the Air Corps was cancelled in July 2002 due to budgetary constraints. Any decision to acquire medium lift helicopters for the Air Corps in the future can only be taken as the financial resources permit. The decision to cancel the tender competition was extremely difficult. I regarded the acquisition of the helicopters as a priority. When the decision was made, I asked my 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 obligations in search and rescue, while taking account of the current financial position.
An interdepartmental working group was established to seek alternative 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. I expect the group to report in the coming weeks.
I am committed to maintaining the Air Corps role in the provision of search and rescue services and in this regard a Sikorsky S61 helicopter has been acquired for the Air Corps to operate in the north west region as a replacement for the Dauphin helicopter. The S61 helicopter has been leased by the Irish Coast Guard from Canadian Helicopters Corporation Ireland, CHCI, pursuant to existing search and rescue contracts, and has been assigned by the Irish Coast Guard to the Air Corps. The Air Corps will provide the flight crews and the aircraft will be maintained by CHCI. The S61 will operate out of Sligo Airport.
Pilot training on the S61, which is being provided by CHCI, is ongoing. It was anticipated that the helicopter would become operational in early 2003 but, due to a delay in securing appropriate training personnel, it is now expected that the S61 will commence on-site training at Sligo Airport next month, with operations commencing in June 2003.
While much has been done to improve Defence Forces equipment and infrastructure, I am conscious that we cannot rest on our laurels because more needs to be done. Expenditure programmes will now have to be prioritised due to the changed financial situation but I am intent on ensuring that a substantive investment programme will continue so as to enhance the efficiency, professionalism and safety of the Defence Forces.
A significant amount of the funding allocated in recent years for the investment programmes in new buildings and equipment represents moneys provided by the Government in anticipation of property sales, the net proceeds from which go directly to the Exchequer as they are realised. In that regard, Fitzgerald Camp, Fermoy, Devoy Barracks, Naas, and the military post at Castleblayney have been disposed of for a total of €11million. In the case of Murphy Barracks, Ballincollig, sales have been agreed and contracts signed in respect of an area of about 97 acres. An offer has been accepted for the sale of Clancy Barracks, Dublin, and a contract for sale is due to be signed shortly. The sales of Murphy Barracks and Clancy Barracks will realise a total of over €67 million. Magee Barracks, Kildare, is still providing accommodation for asylum seekers while about one acre has been made available to Kildare County Council for a temporary halting site. Agreements have also been reached for the sale of other properties, including married quarters, for a total of approximately €7.6 million.
We have made progress on the development of a new Army organisation structure, based on the revised strength figure provided for in the White Paper, and we are putting a renewed effort into the development of an integrated personnel management system, or IPMS, for the Defence Forces. Following consideration at the civil-military strategic management committee, the Army organisation proposals submitted by the Chief of Staff are now being implemented as the next stage of the reorganisation. There will be a further review of the new organisation next year.
As we put the new Permanent Defence Force organisation in place, it is equally important that the new structures for the Army, the Naval Service and the Air Corps offer rewarding and challenging careers to Defence Forces personnel. The IPMS will address this issue and the whole range of human resources management and development issues. To this end, proposals prepared by the military authorities are now being considered by the strategic management committee in the light of the requirements set out in the White Paper.
The White Paper envisages that the IPMS will address issues such as manpower policy and planning, equality of opportunity and treatment, terms of enlistment, training, education and development, physical and medical fitness, career guidance management and promotion. Within that broad context, it is intended that there would be a career development plan for military personnel designed to give them the right skills and training to carry out their tasks and to compete for promotion. There would be an updated performance management system and performance appraisal and feedback that would include an appropriate element of career guidance and management. Before any final decisions are taken, it is my intention that the Defence Forces representative associations will be fully consulted in a spirit of partnership in accordance with the system of representation. I hope to see the IPMS finalised later this year.
On 15 January 2003 I approved in principle the report of the Reserve Defence Forces review implementation board. This board was established to formulate a plan for the implementation of the recommendations of the special steering group which carried out a study on the reserve. The Permanent Defence Force is now organised in a three-brigade structure and a Defence Forces training centre. The Reserve Defence Force will be similarly reorganised and restructured and it is envisaged that the implementation of these changes will take place over a period of approximately six years.
The full organisational and establishment details of the new Reserve Defence Force will be determined in the course of the ongoing detailed implementation process. Plans are currently being prepared by each general officer commanding a brigade for the amalgamation of FCA units in line with the proposals outlined in the steering group report. The objective of this process is to ensure that better training and other facilities will be provided to members of the Reserve Defence Force. No decisions have yet been taken on the location of the proposed newly amalgamated units, but the military authorities have advised me that all proposed amalgamations will provide an optimal environment for personnel in the relevant areas to participate in the new enhanced reserve.
The blueprint for the new reserve will involve replacing An Fórsa Cosanta Áitiúil with an Army reserve consisting of two elements. One element will provide personnel who will integrate with Permanent Defence Force units to bring them up to full operational strength in a contingency situation. Personnel who opt for a period of integrated service will be provided with enhanced military training. The larger element will provide the overall Army reserve, organised into three reserve brigades. Members of the FCA are already seeing the benefits in terms of better clothing and improved equipment and more and better quality training. As the process develops, we will see additional benefits in terms of a clearer role for the reserve, a better overall organisation structure and opportunities for suitably qualified reserve personnel to serve overseas.
I emphasise that I am very mindful of the need to preserve and to retain the many traditional and well established strengths of the current reserve system, not least the admirable spirit of individual voluntary commitment, close social links with local communities and a good depth and scope as regards nationwide geographical spread. The amount provided for full-time reserve training has been increased in each of the past few years and this year's Estimate continues that trend with provision for approximately 116,000 training days. The corresponding figure for 1999 was 64,000 man days. The aim, over time, is to achieve standardisation and inter-operability between the Permanent Defence Force and the Reserve Defence Force in respect of both dress and personnel equipment.
Members will all be aware of the huge contribution made by Civil Defence volunteers in supporting their communities at local and national levels. Civil Defence assistance with flooding relief measures in Dublin and other counties on a number of occasions in 2002 received national recognition and deservedly so. However, I would also like to salute members for their commitment in volunteering to give their time to assisting their local communities and the major emergency services on a daily basis in all weathers in areas such as search and rescue missions and first aid cover and in particular their dedication to training to respond to major emergencies.
A major milestone in the development of Civil Defence in 2002 was the passing of the Civil Defence Act 2002. By virtue of this Act, in June 2002 I appointed the inaugural Civil Defence board which comprises representatives of all the major stakeholders involved in the wider civil defence community and which will be charged with the management and development of Civil Defence at national level. I expect to be in a position in the near future to sign the necessary order to grant the board its full remit under the new Act. I have full confidence in the board to consolidate the strengths of the organisation and to develop an exciting future for Civil Defence in line with the objectives set out by the Government in the White Paper.
A further milestone for Civil Defence arising from the White Paper is the Government decision to decentralise the Civil Defence branch of my Department to Roscrea and, as I announced recently, I expect to have the new Civil Defence headquarters in Roscrea operational later this year.
The office of emergency planning was set up in my Department in October 2001 following the awful events of the preceding month in the United States of America. The remit of the office is to assist with emergency planning across all Departments and to exercise an oversight role of the emergency planning process generally. The office is staffed by civil servants and military personnel and has worked extremely well.
I chair the Government taskforce on emergency planning which co-ordinates the work of all the Departments with lead responsibilities for the various Government emergency plans and those with supporting inputs. It has met on 23 occasions to progress emergency planning issues and to facilitate the improvements which have taken place in emergency planning and response arrangements in the last 18 months. I can report that the advice available to me continues to be that there is no current credible threat to this State from international terrorist activity.
There are at present more than 440 members of the Permanent Defence Force serving overseas under the auspices of the United Nations, the EU and the OSCE. I take this opportunity to pay tribute to all those members of the Defence Forces who have served and who continue to serve on peacekeeping missions abroad. Through their commitment and professionalism they bring great honour on Ireland and on the Defence Forces. The past year has represented a period of major change for the Defence Forces in terms of overseas commitments. From having one main contingent deployed in one mission for so many years, namely UNIFIL, at one stage last year we had significant contingents deployed in Kosovo, Bosnia - Herzegovina, Eritrea and East Timor. We also had a small number of personnel serving with the International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan, together with small numbers in observer and HQ planning, administration and liaison roles in a range of other missions. This year we are completing our final tours of duty with UNMEE in Eritrea and UNMISET in East Timor. Also we are currently completing a restructuring of our commitment in the Balkans where we have withdrawn the military police contingent from SFOR in Bosnia-Herzegovina. As part of this restructuring, we are also withdrawing the transport company from KFOR in Kosovo and are replacing it with an APC mounted infantry company group of approximately 250 personnel.
The question of participation in overseas missions is examined on a case by case basis. As members will be aware, participation by the Defence Forces in an overseas mission requires UN authorisation, a specific Government decision and the approval of Dáil Éireann - the so-called "triple lock". These are the underlying principles for our national decision making procedures.
The Government is committed to the maintenance of international peace and security through its contribution at the United Nations, and in a very practical way, through the ongoing participation of Defence Forces personnel in overseas peace support operations.
We should not forget the high price that has been paid by personnel of the Defence Forces on active service with the UN. Some 84 members of the Defence Forces have lost their lives while on overseas service, including 45 personnel who died while on duty in Lebanon.
In regard to defence and security developments within the EU, the Union has been developing its common foreign and security policy as a means of playing a greater role for peace, stability and security in Europe. The Helsinki European Council in December 1999 agreed on a voluntary target for establishing capabilities for Petersberg Tasks. This target, known as a headline goal, which member states aim to meet by the end of 2003 involves the ability to deploy up to 60,000 personnel within 60 days and to sustain that deployment for one year.
Ireland's commitment of up to 850 members of the Defence Forces to the headline goal was authorised from within our existing commitment of 850 personnel to the United Nations standby arrangements system. The largest element of the commitment involves a light infantry battalion of up to 750 personnel, along with an Army Ranger Wing platoon of 40, in addition to small numbers in national support, headquarters and observer elements which make up the remainder.
The recent breakthrough on an overall EU-NATO agreement at the Copenhagen European Council on 12 and 13 December 2002 has given significant impetus to the development of a European security and defence policy. The agreement on permanent arrangements between the EU and NATO has opened the way for an EU takeover of the current NATO-led mission in the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. It is anticipated that the EU-led mission will be similar in size to the current allied harmony mission, approximately 300 to 350 personnel.
Ireland joined Partnership for Peace on 1 December 1999. Participation in PfP is entirely voluntary and is based on the principle of self-differentiation, that is, a state selects for itself the nature and scope of its participation in PfP activities. On the basis of its presentation document, Ireland has developed to date, in consultation with the NATO Secretariat, three individual partnership programmes for the years 2001, 2002 and 2003, which set out the level and extent of proposed participation in such areas as co-operation in peacekeeping principles, doctrine, training and exercises, and inter-operability in peacekeeping operations.
In common with other neutral EU member states that are members of PfP and who also participate in the planning and review process, Ireland views PARP as a mechanism for planning in relation to the EU headline goal. The aim is to create the conditions in which different national contingents can work together efficiently and effectively in a multinational environment. Ireland wishes to contribute its UN peacekeeping experience by playing an active part in humanitarian, rescue, peacekeeping and crisis management tasks - the Petersberg Tasks - in support of the European Union's common foreign and security policy.
I would like to update the committee in regard to compensation claims for hearing loss. By 28 February 2003 a total of 16,571 claims had been received from current and former members of the Defence Forces in respect of loss of hearing allegedly caused during their military service. Some 14,176 claims have been disposed of, mainly through settlements. That leaves a total of 2,395 claims outstanding at the end of last month. New claims are continuing to be received at an average rate of nine per week.
The early settlement scheme has continued to operate successfully and by the end of February, more than 5,000 claims had been resolved by direct negotiations with plaintiffs' solicitors. However, last July I announced the cessation of the early settlement scheme for claims received after that date. I had come to the view that as the issue had been in the public domain for more than ten years it was time to bring it to a conclusion. New claims will be contested in court on the grounds that they are now statute barred. Claims initiated on or before that date are still eligible for settlement under the scheme.
To date a total of €262 million has been paid in respect of hearing loss claims including almost €86 million in plaintiffs' legal costs. The average settlement figure has decreased from €38,000 in 1996 to a current level of about €10,000. When plaintiffs' legal costs are included, the cost of settling the outstanding claims currently in hand is estimated at about €50 million.
Details of individual subheads for both the defence and Army pension Estimates have been circulated to the committee. Accordingly, I do not propose to comment any further on individual subheads at this stage. I will, of course, be pleased to answer any queries from committee members and to assist in any way I can.
