Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for his reply. He stated the Air Corps was able to respond to all requests for assistance. I did not see any official denial that the Air Corps was not able to respond when the terrible accident occurred off the coast of Erris. The Minister of State might just clarify the position.

With regard to the recruitment and retention of personnel, does the Minister of State intend to introduce an initiative such as the one that existed in regard to the service commitment incentive scheme that retained trained Air Corps personnel? I believe there was a bonus payment of €20,000. A distinguished former senior officer of the Army, former Brigadier General Ger Aherne, was quoted recently as saying, "The cost-benefit analysis of this approach, where the training cost of a pilot is in the region of €1.5m, is a no-brainer." Does the Minister of State intend to introduce such a measure to try to retain Air Corps personnel when they are trained and working so as not to have the Air Corps as a training school for the private sector? It is very important that when we have highly skilled, trained personnel, we retain them.

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