THE Government has appointed management consultants Price Waterhouse to draw up plans for the reorganisation of the Naval Service and Air Corps.
The appointment of the consultants, announced yesterday by the Minister for Defence and for the Marine, Mr Barrett, comes months after it was made clear that a separate review of both services would be undertaken.
The Naval Service and Air Corps have both had their workloads increased while previous consultants' recommendations, including one from Price Waterhouse, suggested that their personnel be cut.
Two years ago, Price Waterhouse also recommended that the Defence Forces be reduced from a four-brigade force with 13,000 members to a single-brigade structure with about 10,000. The Government eventually opted for a compromise three-brigade structure with 11,500 personnel.
The Minister said yesterday: "Both the Naval and Air Corps carry out essential tasks in protecting our fisheries and in search and rescue missions. It is essential that they are properly structured to execute these functions.
"These studies, which will commence immediately, will help to ensure that both services are run as effectively and as efficiently as possible."
In the past year, the workloads of the Naval Service and Air Corps were stepped up in line with increased fishery, rescue and drug intervention responsibilities.