Mr. Conor King:

That is all I want to say about the matter.

The UK Ministry of Defence reports annually on manning levels and strengths, which is what one expects to see in a democracy. However, the key point, as the Senator identified, is that it reports on trained strength and does not include 500 recruits or cadets in the figures.

The Irish public are starting to realise that when the Defence Forces are described as having an establishment of 9,500 and a strength of 8,750, I am surmising that 500 or 600 cadets or recruits must be taken away from that. There are also personnel overseas, on leave of absence, on secondment and on sick leave etc. Therefore, we need to understand what strength at station is and we have painted a clear enough picture.

I am not personally aware of the specific number of helicopters available to the Air Corps. If there are only two available to the Air Corps then that is a dire situation. I am not qualified to comment on that as I do not have the figures to hand but what I can say is that Air Corps cadetships are now taking almost five years due to a lack of aircraft.

The Senator spoke about governance and I have covered governance and mentoring but I would like to paint another picture of governance and I ask Mr. Keogh to do that as president of RACO and to talk about supervision, mentoring, the work-life balance etc. that are affecting the line units in the Defence Forces.