Gerard Craughwell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am blue in the face speaking about the search and rescue contract over the past 12 or 18 months. That contract is likely to go to tender over the summer so this is probably my last attempt to say anything on it. We were told in 2010 by the then Minister for Transport, Noel Dempsey, that Ireland had signed a contract for a fleet of new Sikorsky S-92s. In 2014, the then Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, Deputy Leo Varadkar, announced that the new helicopters, which come at a retail price of €40 million each, were being leased as part of the CHC helicopters package. We did not get new helicopters. We got two that were built in 2006, two that were built in 2007 and one that was built in 2011. Did we pay for new helicopters? I believe this is a legitimate question to ask.

I have also asked questions about neonatal transfers. Part of the future helicopter study group was to provide transfers for the HSE, one of the most crucial of which is neonatal. That is not available today with the S-92s. At the time the contract was being put together, the Coast Guard stated that the Air Corps AW139 helicopters were not suitable for search and rescue operations and no money could be saved by putting the Air Corps into that role.Geoff Russell of AgustaWestland, the manufacturer of the 139 helicopter, told the Sunday Independent that a headline in the newspaper stating the Air Corps was not equipped to provide rescue services was misleading. He said it did not help any government to make decisions on search and rescue services if such an important decision was made within incomplete or inaccurate information. That might explain why I have constantly pursued this issue.

Regarding the issue of night vision goggles, the junior Minister at the Department of Transport informed me only a few days ago the reason the goggles were not in use was that the training was not yet completed. They got the hardware eight years ago.

On the question of the contract signed in 2012 with CHC, it was suspended from search and rescue where it was preferred bidder with others in 2011 in the UK because the consortium member, CHC Helicopter, had commercially sensitive information regarding the Ministry of Defence and the Department of Transport. I have received three letters, two from Ministers and one - a copy - sent to me by Mr. Ken Spratt, Secretary General of the Department of Transport. In all three letters I have been threatened. They say, as professionals, the companies involved which they contacted to tell them what I was saying will not take any action at this time. What sort of a relationship has the Government got with a private contractor when Ministers are contacting contractors to advise them of what I have said in this House? It is outrageous. It suggests a relationship which is repugnant to any sort of public procurement. We have had Ministers visit search and rescue sites in Dublin, which is repugnant to any procurement process. I have said from the outset this process needs to be examined fully before it goes ahead. The chances are this procedure will go ahead when we go into recess and we will not be able to speak about it again but, by God, I promise I will follow this to hell for as long as I am a Member of this House and if I find something is rotten at the bottom of it, I will expose it.