Gerard Craughwell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

It is rather odd than in the context of SAR, an expert was brought in, if one can call a non-pilot, one-man operation an expert, to advise on this Bill. I am on record in this House, at committee and in correspondence with the Department of Transport as to the reservations I have over a one-man band providing any advice to the Department. The letter I got in response from the Department sought to assure me this one-man band was providing advice to organisations all over the place. It shocks me that this operation has a balance sheet without creditors or debtors at any stage in the three years prior to getting the contract. Indeed, the tender the Department recently put out for somebody to assist with the procurement of the next SAR contract sets the turnover of the organisation so low that anybody could apply. I have a difficulty with that.

As Senator Sherlock said, there is very little dividing us at this point in time. We can have confidence in a peer support group made up of the pilots themselves. Senators Doherty, Sherlock and Buttimer are correct in what they said. Pilots are a very unusual breed. They are very protective of their licences. They communicate among themselves but are slow to communicate in a forum in which other people are involved. All of us in this room will probably get on an aeroplane in the next month or two. When the two men walk into the front of that aircraft and close the door-----