Gerard Craughwell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

First, I join with my colleague, Senator Wall, and I am sure with the Acting Leader, in welcoming the accession of PDFORRA to ICTU. However, it is outrageous that RACO has not been granted the same permission. I call today on the Minister for Defence to immediately address that. There are pay talks ongoing right now and they need to be there.

There has been much talk recently about mental health for children and mental health issues for children. One wonders about the way business is done in this country. I brought this report before this House last week. It is 415 pages in length and is the Air Corps's pitch to take part in the search and rescue, SAR. This would result in €378,661,302 in savings to the Exchequer. I guarantee the Leader that no Minister has read this or has been asked to read it. Furthermore, the critique of that report is three pages in length. There is not one technological, empirical or statistical piece of evidence to support this piece of nonsense.

The Secretary General was invited before the Oireachtas joint committee on a number of occasions to discuss this process and has refused to come. If the Departments are not answerable to the Oireachtas and the Ministers appear to not be in control of their Departments, where the hell do we go? It is outrageous there is no way to question this process. This process is banging ahead like a steam engine. There would be almost €400 million in savings over ten years and nobody will explain why it is not happening.

We talk all the time about the pride we have in the Defence Forces in this House. There is no pride in the Defence Forces. This weekend an RAF aircraft was called in to do top cover without the knowledge of the Air Corps. I am told it was RAF, but it was English and that is for sure. This fits neatly into the desire of the Irish Coast Guard to have top cover provided by somebody other than the Air Corps for the next three years.

Who is running this State? Is it the faceless civil servants who are so God-damned powerful at this stage that they are answerable to nobody, not even to the Houses of the Oireachtas? To compel a Secretary General to come before an Oireachtas committee, you need the Committee on Parliamentary Privileges and Oversight of both Houses to agree. That is way too cumbersome, as far as I am concerned. This is an outrage. I understand that the tender will be going out today. That tender will be going out in contempt of this House, of the Lower House and of the Oireachtas joint committee. That is simply not good enough.