Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Tuesday, 24 June 2025
Committee on Defence and National Security
Recent Air Corps Developments: Discussion
2:00 am
Tom Clonan (Independent) | Oireachtas source
Gabhaim buíochas leis an gCathaoirleach. The witnesses are all very welcome. I congratulate the Chief of Staff on his recent appointment. I see Colonel Owen McNally is also here. He is my former comhairleoir and I assure him that despite the obvious deterioration in age and eyesight my shoes are still polished and I have water in my water bottle still.
We convened this evening to talk about what appears to us from the distance we are at to be a crisis in the Air Corps. I think back to the time of my service when we had jet aircraft and I imagine a larger fleet of both fixed-wing and rotary aircraft and I am concerned and puzzled about how we got to this point. I think of my classmates who served in the Air Corps in search and rescue and in other roles, many of whom now fly for Aer Lingus, Ryanair and others, so I understand the retention issues. I am also conscious of people who were in my senior class, for example Gavin Foynes and Mick Baker, who made the ultimate sacrifice in public service in search and rescue, in training and so on. The culture of the organisation is very strong but something has clearly happened over the last number of decades. My subjective view comes from the distance I am at, because I have had very little contact with the organisation in the last number of years, but I imagine part of it is due to the peace dividend flowing from the Good Friday Agreement and the broader peace dividend that was enjoyed throughout Europe with the collapse of the Berlin Wall and the unwinding of the Soviet Union. As the Secretary General says, things have now changed.
I take heart from the recommendations of the Commission on the Defence Forces. Level of ambition 2 is probably not ambitious enough. I have written about this in the media but also in peer-reviewed papers that we should go to the most ambitious level to address the issues. It is a kind of general question I will address to the GOC and maybe the Chief of Staff will have thoughts on it. Is there something about Irish society that perhaps we are not sufficiently well-informed about what the Defence Forces do, their status and role in society and how important they are? Is there something we can do as a committee? Might the witnesses have an ask of us as a committee? The majority of committee members are members of Government parties, attend their parliamentary party meetings every week and have a direct line to key decision-makers.
We have veterans in that position as well. If the witnesses had a key ask of the committee in terms of supporting them in the next steps, what would the top three asks be?
Planning for 30 years was mentioned. I am optimistic and hopeful that the current crisis that confronts us will eventually be overcome. That is in the immediate to medium term. However, in the area of long-term planning, do they have an all-island concept for our air domain? Is some sort of all-Ireland iteration seen for the future? We have six counties in NATO, so the expectations for collective security will be very high. I do not know. I imagine some if not all of those counties may remain in NATO. Do the Defence Forces plan with that in mind? Is that something carried out in conjunction with the Department, or is it an entirely military function, something taking place in the Department with our European colleagues or our colleagues across the water? For example, has anyone published a paper on it in the Defence Forces Review? I am curious about that.
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