Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats)
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130. To ask the Taoiseach and Minister for Defence the full cost of retrofitting display smoke generation capability to the Air Corps Pilatus PC9 fleet; and the breakdown of the component costs, installation costs, travel and subsistence costs and chemical colorant and cleaner consumable costs. [30087/21]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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My priority as Minister for Defence is to ensure that the operational capability of the Army, Air Corps and Naval Service, is maintained to the greatest extent possible to enable the Defence Forces to carry out their roles as assigned by Government.

There is also continuous investment in the upgrading equipment platforms and funding is provided on an on-going basis for the required maintenance and upgrading of aircraft in the Air Corps fleet. Certain purchasing is carried out by the Defence Forces directly under delegation of financial responsibility which permits the Defence Forces to procure a wide range of goods and services directly, and this includes the retrofitting of smoke generation capability.

In 2015 the Air Corps acquired smoke kits for the PC9M aircraft from the aircraft manufacturer Pilatus.  The total cost for equipping all 7 planes was €192,665 plus the cost of smoke as outlined in the table below.

Air Corps technical personnel were trained to install the smoke kits on one aircraft at Pilatus facilities in Switzerland and the technicians subsquently completed the rest of the installations in the Air Corps workshops at Casement Aerodrome. Travel and subsistence costs of €2,059 and €17,320 respectively were incurred in respect of this training.