U-turn on chair of defence review heavily criticised

The Government has abandoned a key recommendation to appoint an independent chairperson for the Price Waterhouse review of the Naval Service and Air Corps.

The decision, which represents a serious blow to the future of both defence wings, has been defended by the Minister for Defence, Mr Smith. The Minister told The Irish Times that an independent chair would "indicate a lack of trust" and emphasised that he was still committed to acting on the review as soon as possible.

However, senior Naval Service and Air Corps officers have reacted furiously to the decision, claiming that this effectively shelves the review altogether. The Government had announced last month that it accepted the review's recommendations in principle, including a £235 million re-equipment plan for both defence wings, an increase in Naval Service staff, greater cost-efficiency and confirmation of their multi-tasking capabilities.

Given the Army's opposition to any resources being diverted to the sister services, an independent chair was regarded as vital in steering through implementation of the key provisions. A draft press release to accompany the review's publication, seen by The Irish Times, had specified appointment of this independent post as head of an implementation group comprising the secretary-general of the Department of Defence, the Chief-of-Staff of the Defence Forces, the GOC Air Corps, Flag Officer Commanding the Naval Service, and representatives of the Departments of the Taoiseach, Marine and Finance.

This paragraph was dropped from the final press release, in which it was stated that implementation would be "consistent with the White Paper on Defence". The White Paper is not expected to be published before the year 2000, and a safe pair of hands in the review chair may result in a stalling or shelving of key decisions.

"This now means that none of the positive recommendations in the review will be acted on before the next century, while the cost-efficiency measures will be put into effect," Comdt Brian O'Keeffe, general secretary of the Representative Association of Commissioned Officers (RACO), told The Irish Times yesterday.

Recruitment and promotion in both defence wings hinged on Government acceptance of the review, which was approved by Cabinet on July 27th, almost six months after it was submitted by Price Waterhouse. Appointment of a chairperson is "not a big issue", a Department of Defence spokesman said yesterday, as the implementation plan would be prepared "in-house" by the Department, and the group would be established in September.

However, the spokesman also confirmed that it would involve the relevant Departments of Finance, Marine and Justice.

RACO believes these Departments will cherrypick from the review, and place more emphasis on rationalisation and privatisation of non-military services, an approach firmly rejected by the consultants.

The Minister for Defence said that the representative organisations were mistaken, in accusing him of stalling, by making the link with the White Paper on Defence.

"I am going to prepare an implementation plan on the basis of some urgency, and this will be in the interests of the Naval Service. By the time decisions are taken on the White Paper, it will be a more flexible, efficient organisation," he said.

The Minister denied that this meant he was going to effect cuts before recruiting additional staff. Last week the Flag Officer Commanding the Naval Service, Commodore John Kavanagh, warned that recruitment would have to come before cost-efficiency measures in implementing the review.