Gerard Craughwell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

The Minister of State is welcome. I will concentrate on the Coast Guard, which will be no surprise to him. Figures recently released to me show the cost of the helicopter service for 2022, which amounts to €56 million for the first ten months of the year. It is likely it will reach between €67 million and €70 million. That is an overrun of between €10 million and €20 million based on the figures supplied to me by the Department at the beginning of this month. I am deeply concerned that the Department refuses to answer the question as to whether there are additional charges to the contract if we transfer patients from the islands to hospitals. Are we paying separately for that? I am clear that we are because the Department stated it would not provide the information because it was commercially sensitive. I also asked if we were paying for training flights and the response I received was that the Department would not answer the question because it was commercially sensitive. That suggests to me that we are paying for these things.

I will move on to night vision technology, which was put into the helicopters. In 2013, we paid around €8 million for night vision technology. I cannot understand how the contract was awarded without night vision technology included given that the expert group laid it out as a feature that should be included. I was then told in a letter in early March that it was not implemented because of Covid. The machines were night vision compatible in 2013, but Covid and training and the Irish Aviation Authority, IAA, certification delayed the implementation of night vision technology until 2022. That is totally unacceptable. I sincerely hope the Minister of State will agree with me that it is unacceptable.

I will move on to the Coast Guard in general. Last week, representatives of Civil Defence appeared before the Joint Committee on Foreign Affairs and Defence. No disciplinary procedures have been taken which resulted in members of Civil Defence being dismissed. However, we have a plethora of people dismissed from the Coast Guard. It is a dysfunctional organisation. We have the Comptroller and Auditor General's report into the procurement of vehicles showing it was a disaster. We have the situation with life jackets. The Coast Guard told this committee a short time ago that it realised the life jackets were faulty in 2018 and they were withdrawn from service. I have documentary evidence that the faults in the life jackets were reported in 2015, days after they were brought into service. The bottom line is that I am asking the Minister of State a couple of questions-----