Mr. Diarmuid Ó Conghaile:

The Senator is right that that was before my time, but I will endeavour to answer the question. The fitting of the kit into the aircraft was approved by IASA. It is a design modification of the aircraft. The retrofitting was done by the manufacturer. Such an approval would include a safety risk analysis of any impact such retrofitting would have on other aspects of the technology or operation of the aircraft. The night vision imaging system, NVIS, is available to the aircraft for their normal commercial aviation flights, let us call them. We are finalising with the operator a review of its safety risk analysis for NVIS to be used on SAR flights. That process is well advanced. We expect to give that approval within a matter of weeks if not before.