Major road construction projects and economic expansion have meant that Defence Forces' cash and explosives escorts have increased to their highest levels, the Chief of Staff of the Defence Forces, Lieut Gen Colm Mangan, revealed yesterday.
It had been anticipated - particularly in the 2000 White Paper on Defence - that the Aid to the Civil Power services provided by the Defence Forces would decline along with the ending of the terrorist threat in the North. However, last year the Army recorded 27,189 "man days" providing cash and explosives guards and escorts, an increase of 914 on the previous year.
At the publication of the Defence Forces annual report for 2001 yesterday, Lieut Gen Mangan said that while he had been able to reduce the size of the Army's Border forces, the amount of civilian service work carried out by the Army had increased. Army escorts were doing more work than ever accompanying cash deliveries around the State and guarding explosives, mainly for use in road construction.
"Our deployments on the Border areas have decreased but conversely our commitment to cash escorts and explosives escorts have increased. This is for economic reasons rather than subversive ones because there is a lot more money moving because of the buoyancy of the economy. And the increased amount of construction, particularly road-building, has meant there is more use of explosives."
Lieut Gen Mangan also said the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington last September 11th meant the Army's role in providing internal security had also increased.
In the foreword to the annual report, he said: "These outrageous attacks on the civilised world were a timely reminder to states of the necessity to remain vigilant and also of the continuing need for effective and efficient military forces. Ireland cannot assume itself to be immune from similar attacks at some time in the future."
After September 11th to the end of 2001, there was a sharp increase to 187 in the number of call-outs of the Army's explosive ordnance disposal units, about twice the previous year's figure. More than 100 call-outs took place post-September 11th, when the scares in the US over biological agents and other toxic substances spread here.
Lieut Gen Mangan said the Defence Forces had surpassed the targets set for it in a management consultants' report in the mid-1990s for reducing its payroll-to-capital expenditure ratio from 80/20 to 64/36. The consultants said the ratio should be 70/30.
The Republic still had one of the lowest defence budgets in the EU, spending €753,870,000, just 0.8 per cent of GNP, down from 1 per cent in 1998, mainly due to personnel cuts.
The Defence Forces continued its high level of commitment to UN and other peacekeeping missions. It was also on target for preparing its 850-strong commitment to the European Rapid Reaction Force by next year.
The Chief of Staff again paid tribute to the soldiers who were killed or died on service during the Defence Forces' 23-year commitment to the UNIFIL mission in south Lebanon.
During 2001 the Air Corps provided 121 search and rescue missions, rescuing 42 people in difficulties at sea and on land. The Air Corps also flew 292 offshore maritime surveillance patrols and provided 107 air ambulance flights. The Government jet flew 120 missions and 34 other ministerial flights were flown in its other fixed wing Beechcraft and CASA aircraft.