Gerard Craughwell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Leas-Chathaoirleach. In recent times capital projects have been questioned. People ask how the national children's hospital went from €600 million to possibly €2 billion, or more. It is no secret that I have had a huge interest in search and rescue. I have been spending a considerable amount of my time and that of the House trying to get to the bottom of what goes on in that area. I had been pursuing the business case that led to the pre-qualification questionnaire being delivered. At that time I was not aware that a 415-page document was the submission put forward by the Air Corps to take its one base out of the system. There are 415 pages of detailed work on how they would meet the criteria for search and rescue. That document was sent to be evaluated by an independent evaluator. I am holding the independent evaluator's report. It is three pages. There is not one statistical, technological or empirical reason given for the recommendation that the Air Corps submission be rejected - nothing. The Leader will have the report in her mailbox later on today. The Air Corps was asked to submit a rebuttal. It produced 18 pages of detailed analysis of the consultant's report.

In 1998, PricewaterhouseCoopers spoke about the search and rescue contracts. It made the point in paragraph 136 of the Air Corps presentation that, "SAR contracts on the West and East coasts would continue on a contract basis on a recurring contract equivalent, at a cost of €4.5 m per annum, with no asset transfer to the State over the contract period". It goes on to price the cost per hour of flying search and rescue using the contractor. On the west coast, when a helicopter takes off in a search and rescue role, it is costing taxpayers €81,000 per hour. On the east coast, when a helicopter takes off on a search and rescue mission, it is costing €145,000 per hour. Based on questions to the Minister, the cost per hour of flying for the Air Corps is €4,000; that is €141,000 cheaper than the private contractor. More importantly, the consultant condemns the Leonardo AgustaWestland 139 helicopter as not being suitable for search and rescue.That helicopter is in use in 14 countries in Europe, including Italy, Spain and Portugal, all of which have coastal areas. I am asking today, by way of a letter to the Taoiseach, the Tánaiste and the Minister for Transport, Deputy Ryan, the Minister for Defence, Deputy Coveney, the Minister for Finance, Deputy Donohoe, the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Deputy Michael McGrath, and the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Transport, that this process be stopped right now until we establish exactly what has led to the Air Corps being removed. The Air Corps could have saved the economy several million euro over the lifetime of this contract. This is outrageous. When one talks about getting access to the business case, if one cannot see who was eliminated from the business case then one has no idea what took place. This has to be stopped now. I do not want to see this country spending €1.5 billion to €2 billion on something when we will have nothing to show for it at the end.