Paul Kehoe (Wexford, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Rome was not built in a day. This has been going on for the past 12 to 18 months and I am delighted it has been done now. Military management and the representative association looked for this. This came to my attention in the past 18 months.

Two pilots have returned and more pilots are to return. Regarding the allowances specifically for people in the Air Corps, this is going through conciliation and arbitration at present. It would be wrong of me to comment further on it. It has to do with the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform because it has to do with core pay and allowances. I do not make decisions on allowances. I have been given the advice by military management and the General Officer Commanding, GOC, that the air ambulance service will be back up and running from 1 March 2020. It came to my attention earlier this year that we had challenges and we agreed we would take it out of service four days per month. I have been given an absolute commitment by the GOC and military management that if we were able to take it out of service for four days in November, December, January and February, the service would get back up and running.