Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Thursday, 11 November 2021

Public Accounts Committee

2020 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 31 - Transport
Chapter 5 - Expenditure on Night Vision Imaging Technology and Training for Search and Rescue
Special Report 113 of the Comptroller and Auditor General - Procurement of Vehicles by the Irish Coast Guard

9:30 am

Mr. Eugene Clonan:

I do not have the contract in front of me. We have five helicopters, four of them at the four bases. The fifth helicopter is spare. With four helicopters, maintenance is required to keep the service operational at the four centres. You swap one helicopter in and take one helicopter out to maintain it. It takes about a month and a half to maintain the helicopters for any issues where they have to stand down. In the contract, we do not buy the helicopter. We use CHC as a service provider. I think the €35 million the Chairman is talking about is to do with the stage payments at the beginning of the contract. Stage payments were made in the first two or three years as each base was stood up. It was not for the purchase of helicopters.

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