Cancellation of helicopter deal deplored

The news that the tender for three medium airlift helicopters for the Air Corps was to be cancelled was "greeted with astonishment…

The news that the tender for three medium airlift helicopters for the Air Corps was to be cancelled was "greeted with astonishment" in Baldonnel and had a severe effect on Air Corps morale, an aeronautical engineer told the 10th annual delegate conference of the Representative Association of Commissioned Officers (RACO) in Tralee, Co Kerry.

There were also fears of a drain of expertise form the Air Corps, the conference heard.

A motion calling on the Minister for Defence, Mr Smith, to give "a clear and unambiguous proposal on the acquisition programme for medium lift helicopters for the Air Corps" was passed yesterday.

The motion also called on the Minister to set a time frame for the acquisition.

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"The news was compounded by the fact that search-and-rescue pilots were training in Norway at the time," said Comdt Padraig Conneeley of the Air Corps.

Leasing was not the most efficient option, he said.

It was an accountancy exercise and would in fact cost more in the long term as the Minister would have to pay for two costly certificates of airworthiness as well as high leasing fees.

Comdt Adrian Ryan, deputy general secretary of RACO, welcomed the Minister's commitment to the conference the previous day to the search-and-rescue programme, but he called on Mr Smith to give a date for the purchasing programme.

It would be too late in three years' time, the end of the leasing period for the Sikorsky S-61, to make a decision, Comdt Ryan said.

"A gap would be created between the end of the current lease and the purchase of the new helicopters," he said.

The fear was that the personnel in the Air Corps search-and-rescue helicopter project would be attracted into the private sector.

In the lead-up to the cancellation in July, everything had been very positive, Comdt Ray Martin said.

On the opening day of the conference on Tuesday the Minister, Mr Smith, said he was committed to the long-term involvement of the Air Corps in a search-and-rescue role.

He was conscious of the huge effort that had been put into the procurement process by Air Corps personnel and of their "acute disappointment".