Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

This has been a very good success and a great partnership. The Defence Forces, as always, have shown they can be flexible and accommodate broad requests and concerns with which they are asked to assist. The Air Corps has done a great job. We await the result of an implementation group on how we can provide the service into the future on a permanent basis. If the recommendation is that the Defence Forces continue to provide a service, we will look at it, I suspect, very favourably. However, it may not be the recommendation. Let us wait until we get that recommendation. We will keep the service in place until the working group's recommendations are clear and we have a plan to implement them. I am happy to do so. There will be no end to the service. It is about maintaining a pilot project, to which my Department and the Defence Forces, through the Air Corps, have been integral. We will maintain that service until there is an implementation plan and a clear understanding as to how the permanent service will be put in place. If it involves a request to the Defence Forces, we will consider it, I suspect favourably, but I will wait and see what the recommendations are first.

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