asked the Minister for Defence the names of the organisations to which military service equipment was loaned or hired in the past two years; the type of equipment; and the dates.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Military Equipment.
1.
Many items of military equipment are loaned in accordance with Defence Force Regulations. Details of all these loans are not readily available in my Department and a considerable amount of work and time would be involved in compiling them. If, however, the Deputy would indicate whether he has any specific item or items of equipment in mind I will have the information he requires conveyed to him as soon as possible.
It would appear from the Minister's reply that an enormous quantity of equipment has been loaned when the time involved in compiling it would be so considerable. Could the Minister give some indication as to whether or not equipment has been taken without armed escort, equipment has been operated by civilians having been loaned from military stores?
Certainly, no military equipment should be moved without escort or be used by civilians, but armies, naturally, have all sorts of other things such as the Deputy or I might use in our way of life and I suppose the removal of an ordinary non-military thing would not require a military escort. For instance, if cups and saucers were loaned you would not need a military escort for that.
Could the Minister indicate if signal equipment had been loaned to gymkanas and horse shows and had, in fact, been taken from various barracks without military escort and operated by civilians?
I am not aware of that. I myself saw it by accident at a horse trial where I was glad to see the local military had as an exercise used walkie-talkie equipment to convey information from the jumps out the country to the principal place of marking. That was done as an exercise by the military concerned at the decision of the commanding officer. I saw it myself just because I was there by accident. I was most gratified by the whole thing because it was a very good exercise and a very helpful thing. That was in Tipperary.
The equipment I am speaking about was not in Tipperary but was taken from barracks by civilians, operated by civilians and brought back by civilians. Could the Minister give an indication of the amount of equipment used?
The Deputy has already asked that question.
The Minister has said that it would take a considerable time to compile the information.
There is no information available to me of any type of signal equipment having been taken from barracks by civilians and brought back by civilians. If the Deputy would be good enough to give the instance, I will have it immediately investigated.