Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I refer to the integrity of the overall pay policy. The figures given to Deputy Chambers show a €24 million underspend in salaries in the Defence Forces to date in 2019. The Government is allowing people to leave the forces and is sending back money while the air ambulance service, which dealt with 159 car crashes and 146 medical emergencies in 2018, is in difficulty. To use the words of Conor King, the director of RACO, the service is on the brink of collapse. The Minister has given an assurance that the service will be fine, yet neither he nor the Minister of State, Deputy Paul Kehoe, have followed that through by engaging in recruitment and addressing the gaps in the personnel who provide this service.

The service provided 848 hours of flying in 2016, but that fell to 581 in 2018. Will the Government allow it to fall further in 2019? Will we end up in a situation whereby the service will not be available to somebody who needs it urgently? When that happens, there will be an emergency response and the usual statements of regret and intent. Now is the time to act. The Department of Defence sent back €24 million this year but it is standing idly by while the Defence Forces are being hollowed out. Communities across Ireland are paying the price. The Government is putting its head in the sand again. I cannot believe the commitments provided by the Government on this matter because it has not responded to these issues to date.

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