Gerard Craughwell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

Go raibh maith agat, a Chathaoirligh. The Secretary General, the Chief of Staff, the GOC and other staff are welcome here. I ask the Secretary General that we start by being honest with one another. The policies that have been followed have been a disaster for the aviation services in our Defence Forces. We have lost search and rescue, we have a private operator providing a jet at Dublin Airport for patients every night and then there is the air traffic control issue. In 2017, before Ms McCrum ever arrived at the Department, it was aware there was a problem with air traffic control. In 2021, her Department became acutely aware. I am sorry, it was in May 2019 her Department was aware. There were two pay commissions. Then in 2021 a joint working group identified a crisis coming. Ms McCrum, by then Secretary General, wrote to the Secretary General of the Department of Transport in March 2021 identifying air traffic control as a reason the Air Corps could not have SAR. There was, therefore, nothing new in this. The 2021 study carried out jointly by the Department of Defence and the Air Corps required the Department to advise the Minister of the outcome. Was the Minister advised in 2021 that there was an impending crisis in the Air Corps?