Alan Shatter (Dublin South, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

First, let me deal with the naval side of things. I agree that what is going on in Haulbowline is fantastic. Commodore Mellett is doing a superb job down there. I visited the college very shortly after my appointment as Minister and spoke with many of the individuals involved in SMEs. It is something that I have particularly encouraged. We established something that did not exist when I came into office. We have now involved Enterprise Ireland with the Defence Forces to look at ways in which the Defence Forces can be of assistance in the development of particular industries or can engage in research and development projects. Ultimately, the aim is to develop products that will be of benefit to our Defence Forces and those of other countries and to create jobs. I am giving that every encouragement. The engagement with Enterprise Ireland is proving very fruitful and beneficial. The innovation project has the capacity to create a number of jobs as well as to generate savings. It creates the possibility of equipment that we trial being made freely available to our Defence Forces. Once the equipment has been trialled by the Defence Forces - bearing in mind the importance of safety issues - and it proves valuable, small Irish companies will be producing a product with added validity, enabling it to be sold outside the State, thus creating jobs. Basically, what we get is increased personnel and capability development at no cost, which is of great value. The collaboration with academic and industrial partners by both the National Maritime College of Ireland, NMCI and the Irish Maritime and Energy Resources Cluster is of great value. The growth of IMERC resulted in the creation of 30 civilian jobs in 2012. This is a very exciting project and a very good news story. It has huge potential.

Some of the projects currently being supported include hazard prediction analysis of chemical and biological warfare agents in a dense urban environment, blast overpressure from current improvised explosive devices, IEDs, and blast wave interactions in an urban environment and the development of lightweight armour systems for first responders with Carlow Institute of Technology. This is all part of the engagement that is taking place. Work is also being done on explosive and chemical testing sensors and a project on developing procedures, practices and guidelines for forensic aspects of chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear, CBRN defences with the Tyndall National Institute. There are a number of areas of development and I see this as something that can grow. Enterprise Ireland's engagement in this process is very important because this may attract investment from abroad in areas where we can develop niche industries and in which there are niche markets. This will be to the benefit of the Defence Forces and will save public money, as well as having the capacity to create something very valuable in the long term which could create a substantially larger number of jobs than heretofore. I have spoken to some of the Irish entrepreneurs involved in this who are very happy with the level of engagement by the Defence Forces. I know that at committee meetings such as this one does not normally refer to individual members of the Defence Forces but Commodore Mark Mellett has been a leading figure, along with others in the college, in developing this very important and worthwhile project. I was very pleased to hear that the committee had visited the college.

On the question of the new naval ships, the good news is that the first ship is coming along extremely well. We anticipate that it will be undergoing its sea trials in the autumn and that it will be commissioned early next year. The second ship is expected in 2015. We are being very careful financially in this regard. The construction of the ships involve staged payments which have been included within the Department's Estimates over the last number of years. There is no difficulty with us meeting our obligations.

This year I think €20 million is the sum to be paid in respect of the ships as they are being constructed. The Chief of Staff recently visited the shipyard and he and I had a very lengthy discussion. We will have a state-of-the-art ship which will be able to fulfil a broad range of functions. It is a very important development. It is being built at a cost that is reasonable for the nature of the ship. Indeed, it is becoming, I am advised, a prototype for some other naval services across Europe which were looking at how they can update their fleets with vessels which do not cost hundreds or billions of euro but have certain necessary capabilities at a reasonable cost. I am very much looking forward to the trials commencing and our commissioning the ship in early 2014. We will then have the second ship coming on stream relatively speedily. That is all going very well.

With regard to the reserve, I did what I promised. I did, in fact, read its submission to this committee a couple of days after I got the transcript. To put it in simple terms, I am very happy to meet with the reserve at any stage. The reorganisation is going well. There has been greater engagement with members of the reserve with the PDF as a consequence of it. I have had some discussions where I have met members of the reserve informally or members of the PDF who have been working with the reserve. The feedback we are getting on the changes which have been implemented is very positive. I know the inconvenience on people but it has been positive. There is a different type of engagement now between the RDF and the PDF.

The reorganisation is effectively now in its second phase. It is intended, as I said in my presentation, that it will be completed by the end of September. In this period Defence Forces units incorporating PDF and RDF elements will start to function. The assignment of RDF personnel to units, which has almost been completed, will be finalised. The anticipated savings of €11 million should be achieved. In the context of the presentation made by the RDF, of course where there is a view that certain things may be done differently which would make them even more effective or which would effect additional real savings, we are of course having regard to that.