Gerard Craughwell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

On 28 May this year I brought a Private Member's motion to this House on Ireland's search and rescue service. During the debate on this motion, I raised a number of matters of great concern regarding the oversight and corporate governance of the current search and rescue, SAR, operator, CHC Ireland DAC.The recent report of the Comptroller and Auditor General has completely vindicated my concerns. The report points out that in 2013, the Department of Transport paid €4.3 million to CHC Helicopter, the current operator, to ensure that its five helicopters were equipped with night-vision capability. I am still trying to understand why the State funded a private company's conversion of its helicopters, but we will leave that for now. The report goes on to state that another €527,000 was paid in 2015, for 24 sets of night-vision goggles which, I understand, would remain the property of the Irish Coast Guard. Finally, the report advises that an initial payment of €1.7 million was made in 2018 in respect of training the crews of this private contractor in the use of the technology. This training only commenced in November 2019 and is expected to be completed sometime this year. Senators will note that the process started in 2013. The report of the Comptroller and Auditor General points out that as of June 2021, only one of the search and rescue, SAR, bases has been approved by the Irish Aviation Authority to use night-vision technology. Service from that base has commenced, but it will be some time before all of the bases are able to operate in the same way. It is indeed poor value for money for this country.

Why does this disaster exercise me? In 2009, the Department of Transport and the Irish Coast Guard established the Future Helicopter Study Group, which reported on what would be required for the next SAR contract. In that report, they recommended night-vision technology, yet the contract went ahead without the inclusion of the requirement of night-vision technology. The real concern here is the total lack of oversight. I believe that it was only after the crash of Rescue 116 that any steps were taken to deal with the corporate governance issues at CHC Helicopter.

In 2017, after the crash of Rescue 116, the Department of Transport and the Irish Coast Guard sought a company to carry out the corporate governance and oversight that they were not capable of doing. The company chosen was a company called Aerossurance. It is a one-man company, which was only formed in 2014. In 2015, it published its first accounts. However, the accounts were not audited because the company was so small that it was not required. In 2017, when the company was awarded the contract to advise Ireland's Department of Transport and the Irish Coast Guard, the net assets of the company were €13,000 and €9,000 in cash in the bank. After the crash of Rescue 116, one would surely expect that a major consultancy firm would have been brought in.