Catherine Murphy
Question:148. Deputy Catherine Murphy asked the Minister for Defence the amount spent by the Defence Forces on replacing motorcycles in the escort of honour in 2019. [22740/20]
View answerWednesday, 9 September 2020
Questions (148)
Written answers
My priority as Minister for Defence is to ensure that the operational capability of the Army, Air Corps and Naval Service is maintained to the greatest extent possible so as to enable the Defence Forces to carry out their roles as assigned by Government both at home and overseas.
The acquisition of new equipment for the Defence Forces remains a clear focus for me. Future equipment priorities for the Army, Air Corps and Naval Service are considered in the context of the White Paper on Defence as part of the capability development and equipment priorities planning process. The principal aim over the period of the White Paper will be to replace and upgrade, as required, existing capabilities in order to retain a flexible response for a wide range of operational requirements. Equipment priorities for acquisition will now also align with the Equipment Development Plan for the Defence Forces published in June of this year. This plan builds on the intentions set out in the White Paper on Defence in relation to equipment acquisition, modernisation and upgrade and has been developed and considered through joint civil-military co-operation, ensuring that the Defence Forces will have the best equipment for the job, based on a determination of priorities from a whole of defence standpoint.
The Defence Forces fleet of vehicles is subject to regular review to ensure that it meets operational requirements both at home and overseas. In this regard a requirement for the replacement of Defence Forces Escort of Honour Motorcycles was identified due to the current fleet reaching end of life.
A tender was published on OJEU through eTenders on 14 June 2019, and following completion of the tender evaluation process a contract was awarded to Honda Distributors Ireland on the 27 September 2019. The total contract value was for €532,468.74 inclusive of VAT & VRT for the delivery of 48 motorcycles. The Defence Forces took delivery of the vehicles on 9 December 2019 and the motorcycles entered service in February 2020 after a period of driver familiarisation training.