Mr. Eugene Clonan:

Concerning night-vision goggles, regrettably the timelines have been longer than we anticipated. We spent €4.3 million in modifying the aircraft in 2013. We spent approximately €500,000 in 2015 on the 24 sets of night-vision goggles. The training will cost €4.1 million. We have paid out €1.7 million so far. We started training. We awarded the contract for training in late 2018. The training started soon after that whereby training instructors travelled to simulators in Norway. That came to a halt during Covid-19 the following year. The training is progressing slowly because we want to keep the service running when planning training. Doing night training can interfere with the service because it takes helicopters off the board. Training takes place in winter. While it can be done in summer, the opportunity will not be there to do so. One gets most of the training done in winter.

On the night vision, this is the first time the regulator in Ireland has approved night vision for a commercial operator. We have got to the stage where for commercial air transport Sligo was approved. They are continuing to train the other bases. At the moment, we are at the stage where we want the regulator to approve night-vision imaging systems, NVIS, for search and rescue. It is pioneering within Ireland to do this. The structures are not there. The IAA is putting structures in place.

To give the Deputy an indication, the manuals have to be approved, the training has to be approved, the aircraft had to be approved, and there will be on-site inspections. It is not a case that they can turn up to do their driving licence and come away again. At the moment, I have been ensured by CHC Helicopter and the IAA that the approval for search and rescue NVIS is almost there. That is as far as I am at the moment with it.