Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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At a Cabinet meeting in June, the Government supported a request from the Minister for Transport for members of the Defence Forces to undergo training and certification and to be on standby to assist the daa with the provision of aviation security duties at Dublin Airport.

While I recognise that the role of the Defence Forces is not normally to assist in the provision of services for a commercial airport, I agreed to this request on a clear assurance that this is a distinct piece of work, provided in extreme circumstances, as a short-term emergency related contingency action, and is in direct response to a letter from daa management to the Minister for Transport.

The envisaged remit is for non-public facing security gate duties, to free up approximately 100 existing DAA personnel, for a proposed 6 week timeframe. These external gate posts are the primary means of access for aviation fuel supplies, aircraft and airport supplies, and construction and hangar personnel. As well as access control and ID checks, screening at the gate posts includes searches of vehicles, baggage and people by hand and through the use of explosive trace detection.

Defence Forces personnel have commenced training and have been certified to perform these duties. Training of personnel is continuing this week and the Defence Forces will stand ready to assist if required. The Defence Forces will only be deployed if assistance is requested by the daa and in a scenario where there is a significant deterioration in passenger queuing times with a risk of large numbers of passengers missing their flights. This assistance has not yet been requested by daa.

The support will be stood down in August when the busy holiday period has passed. The daa have given assurances that they will continue with their own recruitment and onboarding of additional security staff and the introduction of other mitigations during this period.

A service level agreement has been signed between the Department of Defence and the daa setting out the arrangements for the provision of aviation security duties by the Defence Forces at Dublin Airport. This includes the modalities for the reimbursement to the Exchequer of all costs by the daa, including salary costs, allowances, training, certification and management costs and the cost of having the Defence Forces personnel on standby. The service level agreement was signed following detailed discussions between officials from my Department, the Defence Forces, Department of Transport and daa to agree the necessary arrangements, and my Department will continue to liaise with all parties as required in this regard.

Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats)
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464. To ask the Taoiseach and Minister for Defence if a new cadetship recruitment campaign for the Naval Service and Air Corps will be launched later this year. [39271/22]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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The military authorities have advised that applications for the Army, Naval Service and Air Corps 2022 Cadetship competition are currently being processed. The requirement for further Cadetship competitions will be kept under ongoing review.