Mr. Ken Spratt:

I am conscious that I am going to eat into the Deputy's time but could I spend about two minutes on it? The Chairman could extend the Deputy's time if that is okay. There has been much interest in our search and rescue responsibilities and I would be grateful to set out important facts. The existing contract with CHCI was to run for ten years from July 2012 with an option for three one-year extensions. The contract has been extended to July 2023. The annual cost is approximately €60 million. The current service was procured on the basis of a thorough scoping exercise at the time involving all stakeholders, including the Department of Defence and the Air Corps. Based on that analysis, the recommendation for the new service was to significantly enhance the search and rescue capability, which involved modernising and upgrading the helicopter fleet to cater for the wide range of scenarios for maritime search and rescue, including a mass rescue. Thankfully, we have not had to do that but we have the capability to do so should we need to.

It was tendered by open competition. A compliant process was followed and independently audited. This resulted in a Government decision to award the contract to CHCI at the time. The construction of the tender bids was a matter for each tenderer based on the specification required. It was not for the Department or the Coast Guard to dictate whether it should buy or lease but to assess the relative costs between the two final bidders. The tenders were evaluated on the basis of the stated award criteria and CHCI was determined to be the preferred bid. This is not a fixed-cost contract. There are agreed monthly standing charges and variable elements on top of that. There are costs associated with modifications, which are agreed with the Coast Guard. There can be other additional costs, all of which are provided for in the contract terms. The contract costs on average €60 million per year, which is broadly in line with expectations at the outset. CHCI has provided an excellent service and the contract has delivered on all key performance metrics. The Air Corps was not in a position to deliver the service at the time and this was acknowledged by the Department of Defence. The question of the State purchasing helicopters, which was raised by the Deputy, was considered at the time. This would require significant upfront costs and would have involved significant associated risk to the State. In buying a service, the risk of helicopter loss or depreciating values of the asset, which is important, is carried by the service provider. To sum that up, it was something that was considered at the start but it was decided on the basis of what we required to procure that it was better not to be the owner of those assets. I might ask Mr. Clonan to address the training component.