Cathal Crowe (Clare, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I want to speak on this because as we move forward and improve infrastructure in the Defence Forces, which is important, there will be the inevitable sale of equipment as equipment is upgraded. It is important that some of the mistakes of the past are not repeated, including the one made a decade ago with those iconic Dauphin helicopters with the bubble front cockpit on them.

They were sold to a company in Las Vegas for €360,000 and subsequently sold on for approximately €19 million. I do not suggest we will ever get to that phase again but if assets are being replaced it is important that in the first instance we look at a national repurposing of them. We have a fabulous museum in Collins Barracks. There is also a lovely one on Spike Island with incredible equipment in storage on public display. We should look at domestic repurposing of them and maximising the asset value if it gets to that point. I hope that a lot of this equipment can still be used in training the new recruits we will see. There should be oversight in the Department on this.

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