Regina Doherty (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for being here this morning. The issues myself and Senator Craughwell are raising predate his tenure as Minister of State at the Department of Transport but they are current issues. We have been raising these concerns in the Seanad for months. The process to award the tender for the new search and rescue contract is utterly flawed. I refer to the exclusion of the Irish Air Corps, because they had suggested they would use an AgustaWestland AW189 helicopter, and the subsequent awarding of the contract to somebody using an AgustaWestland AW189 helicopter. The bid evaluations were all over the place. The winner was not only more expensive; we all know they have reputational delivery issues on their contracts in Netherlands. The Minister of State will be aware the incumbent took a High Court case to pause the awarding of the contract but the judge refused to do so, on the basis that it would cause a risk to life of Irish people. Maybe he was right. During the Oireachtas committee hearings over the past couple of months, we have invited the Ministers, Secretaries General, senior officials in charge of the tender, and Andy Evans, who excluded the Irish Air Corps and ultimately evaluated its tender bid. The Secretary General of the Department has refused permission to all of those people to attend the Oireachtas committee to talk about the process.

The incumbent, CHC, is due to leave the service in June 2025, after the transition to the new service provider, Bristow. However, what really concerns me today about this transition is that I am reliably informed that Bristow has looked to take CHC staff in advance of that transition to the first base of October 2024. I am also reliably informed that Bristow have issued CHC a legally worded agreement to sign, which means the numbers they are looking to transfer to Bristow equate to 80% of the staff of one of our four bases. That really should concern us. Anybody who knows anything about search and rescue would know that this poses a serious risk to the current incumbent and, therefore, a serious risk to life. I do not know how any operator would be expected to maintain a service when 80% of their staff in one base have been taken off them. It is really bizarre and scary. Normally a new operator would come with a transition team but it is clear to me based on the request by Bristow to CHC that Bristow does not have a transition team and is quite happy to put the current service in jeopardy.