Gerard Craughwell (Independent)

Senator Clonan and I are facing into many weeks of talking about the triple lock. My view is that it was a ridiculous thing to introduce in the first place but it is a red herring. We are spending weeks talking about the triple lock when the Air Corps operations are now closed at weekends and at 8 p.m. every night, meaning aircraft cannot take off or land during those times. We are heading into the Presidency of the European Union and prime ministers visiting this country will not be able to land their aircraft at Baldonnel unless they arrive between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. That is my first point. The second thing is our Naval Service. We can only put one ship to sea at a time. We are going to spend weeks talking about something that is irrelevant. I have not yet met a soldier, an airman or a sailor who gives a continental damn about the triple lock. In fact, if we are going to do away with it, we should have just done away with it. We should stop all the nonsense and deal with the bread-and-butter issues. Soldiers have nowhere to live. Soldiers cannot move through the system. Five-year contracts have the system totally and utterly paralysed. In 2021, the Secretary General of the Department of Defence flagged the issue with respect to air traffic controllers. Somebody has been sitting on their hands since then and has left us, a sovereign State, without an Air Corps at weekends. The Garda had to move its helicopter to Weston. The Garda is bringing in a fixed-wing aircraft for drug interdiction and it will have to be in Weston. We have to start getting real. We are awash with money in this country and we cannot keep the air force going 24-7, 365 days a year. We cannot keep the navy going. I give up. I really do.