asked the Minister for Defence the proposals he has to ensure that our Naval and air services are sufficiently equipped to protect our fishing resources and all the necessary interests of our country; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Protection of Fishing Resources.
8.
It is Government policy to ensure that the Naval Services and the Air Corps are sufficiently equipped to protect fishing and other interests having regard to the tasks involved and to available resources.
Under the heading of other interests to which the question and answer referred, does the Minister foresee a day when the Air Corps and the Naval Service will be adequately equipped to provide a comprehensive air rescue service and so avoid the humiliating situation which has so often developed here?
No later than last week on one day we got a protest in this House about a British helicopter committing an incursion into Irish air space and a couple of days earlier a helicopter belonging to the same British service assisted in the attempted rescue of an unfortunate member of one of our fishing trawlers off the south coast. I would like to see the day come when we either stop protesting about incursions or can provide adequate air/sea rescue services of our own. The present situation is a disgrace.
I accept the Deputy's statement that it is anomalous, to say the least, that we do this kind of thing. We are about to receive five new helicopters which will have capacity way beyond what we have been accustomed to. They are twin-engined helicopters and can operate at night. They have the most up to date facilities in the world in that area of activity. Together with the Eithne, a very well equipped ship carrying helicopters, they will hopefully give us a capacity in the area of air and sea rescue services which we did not have before. While we will not have a comprehensive service, it will be a great improvement on what went before.
Would the Minister agree that it is unseemly of us not to have a consistent policy in regard to accepting on the one hand and rejecting on the other, the incursions of foreign aircraft into our space, depending on whether it suit us? Is that not an undignified situation for this Republic to be in?
I am not prepared to comment on the dignity or otherwise of what we are doing. All I can say is that that is a much wider area. It goes way beyond the Naval Service.
That is another question.