Gerard Craughwell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

The Minister of State was spokesperson on defence in a former life. The notion that a country would not have sovereign capability in search and rescue is repugnant to any reasonable person. The Irish Air Corps put a 415-page document together as part of their bid to take just one base. We wanted CHC, the SAR operator, to hold three bases and the Air Corps to take just one base. I made predictions to both Ministers, who both wrote to me and said they did not know what is going on but that they trusted the public service to do a good job and went on about procurement rules and so on. At no stage did any of us try to influence the procurement of this contract. We wanted to make sure that we had sovereign capability. If a helicopter was grounded for a reason and if the Air Corps was available, they could take that over. The bottom line is that we are winding up with the helicopters we were told were not suitable. Bristow is now looking for 80% of one base. That means the Irish Aviation Authority, IAA, must get involved now. Somebody somewhere has to call a halt to this. We are going to finish up with lives being put at risk simply because the people involved in the procurement of this contract do not understand aviation. There is no aviator in the Department. There is nobody there to advise the Minister of State on aviation. The predictions we were making over the past two and a half years are coming home to haunt us. We will find ourselves having to close a base in the not-too-distant future if Bristow gets its way because you cannot operate without 80% of your staff. The IAA needs to be called in right now and the Minister of State needs to call them in and ask for advice at this point in time.