Vol. 396 No. 8
19 Mr. Clohessy asked the Minister for Defence, having regard to the fact that it has taken seven years for the Dauphin helicopter to fly at night and in storm conditions to its present capabilities, whether a medium range helicopter would be fully utilised by the Air Corps.
The five Dauphin helicopters held by the Air Corps were delivered in the period June to December 1986 and not seven years ago as stated in the Deputy's question. Introductory training was provided in France prior to delivery and operational training programmes commenced in January 1987. It should be recognised that in order to reach a satisfactory level of operational efficiency, the crews of Dauphin helicopters must undergo an extensive period of sophisticated training.
Since the Deuphins were acquired they have flown 247 search and rescue missions as a result of which 182 people were rescued. They have also carried out 94 air ambulance missions including 20 island relief missions.
The question of the adequacy of this country's helicopter resources for air-sea rescue purposes is likely to be considered by the Government in the near future in the light of the report of the committee on air/sea rescue services which was recently presented to the Minister for the Marine.
Does this report which has been with the Minister and the Government for the last three weeks recommend the introduction of a long range helicopter into the Air Corps? Can the Minister let the House know that at this point?
I would be delighted to facilitate the Deputy with an answer but the report has not been considered by the Government as a whole. It is with the Minister for the Marine. He was the commissioning Minister, as it were. It has not been considered on a collective basis by the Government, so I do not want to pre-empt whatever decision will be reached by the Government. However, I assure the Deputy it is under current consideration.
There are reports that only one or two Dauphin helicopters can operate at any given time because of lack of manpower to service and maintain the helicopters and that while we may have five, two is the maximum that can be in operation at any given time. Is that true?
That is not quite true. There are certain air-sea rescue operations for which, by reason of the turbulence of the weather on the south, south-west and west coasts, the Dauphins are not suitable. However, there are exceptional cases which tend to get the headlines. That is why we get a rather distorted perception. In the great weight of missions the Dauphins are very successful — I am talking about a 96 to 97 per cent success rate. The 2 per cent or 3 per cent of cases, the serious ones, that command the headlines are ones for which these machines are not strong enough. That is why the Sea King was commissioned from Britain to deal with the incident off Castletownbere. That is all I can say to the Deputy, but the matter has been examined in detail. The report of that commission is with the Minister at the moment and will be with the Government very shortly and we should be hearing more about it.
A final question.
If weather conditions were suitable and five calls were made on the Air Corps at any given time five Dauphins could not get into the air at the same time. Is that true?
That is putting an extreme case. The only inadequacy has been so far on the basis of what I have talked about, that because of weather conditions—
Leaving weather conditions aside——
Even at that it has not arisen.
——can they all get in the air together?
The Deputy is postulating a very speculative situation.
Can they get up together in the air?
The odds are certainly very much against five instances requiring five Dauphins up in the air at the same time.
We realise all that. I repeat, would it be possible in a major emergency, weather conditions being suitable for the Dauphins to get in flight, to have the five in the air at the same time?
It would depend on whether the five were able to get into the air at the same time.
The answer is "no".
I could not say "no" to the Deputy.
