1. Deputy Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Defence his views on the implications of reduced capacity at Casement Aerodrome at Baldonnel caused by a reduction in staff. [31320/25]

Sentiment score: 0.03

There is a great deal of concern at the moment regarding the situation at Baldonnel. The recent departure of some air traffic control personnel is resulting in a significant reduction in the capacity of Baldonnel, with consequent significant implications for Government aircraft and Air Corps aircraft and, more widely, for sea rescue and so on. I am seeking an update on the situation and how the Minister intends to resolve it.

Sentiment score: 0.57

A couple of issues were raised there. We discussed the issue of service commitment levels in our last session. It reflects the fact that this is an issue across a number of areas in the Defence Forces for specialist personnel. There is severe competition with the private sector. It appears to have hit a particular pinch point in Baldonnel. This is the home of the Air Corps. It is the most important military aerospace facility in the State and it is, in effect, operating nine to five. Former TD Cathal Berry, our erstwhile colleague, identified this as a perfect example of a single point of failure with the potential to cause the entire operation to end. The entire basis of functioning of the Air Corps is challenged by this. In addition, he and others flagged that this issue has been brought to the attention of the Air Corps, of the Department of Defence and the Defence Forces more generally for some time now. When was the first recommendation made to the Government regarding a service level commitment for air traffic controllers?

Sentiment score: 0.09

Local bargaining seems to be the solution to a lot of things and I am not sure how far that 1% is going to stretch to fix all of those issues. It seems to me that this was allowed to get beyond the eleventh hour before it was addressed. This is in the context of people talking about the need to take issues around defence seriously, yet it was allowed to escalate to the position of the national airfield functioning nine to five, and struggling to do so, as far as I understand. At what stage does the Minister believe full cover will be restored such that aircraft will be able to land outside the hours from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.? There is a potential issue in the medium run with regard to the EU Presidency and the need for defence cover for Heads of State arriving here and so on. Has the Minister any concerns regarding the implications of this for helicopter emergency medical service support, particularly on the west coast and Shannon?

Sentiment score: 0.01

4. Deputy Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Defence if he will outline his proposals to remove the triple lock neutrality protection; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [31322/25]

Sentiment score: 0.04

We will have a fair few engagements on this. I am not all that convinced there was a lack of clarity, but if there was a necessity for clarification on humanitarian evacuation, drug interception or rescue of civilians, the Government should just legislate for that. That is my suggestion. As far as the Irish people are concerned, we do peacekeeping with the UN. The UN is not perfect but we do peacekeeping with it. We do not do peacekeeping with NATO or other organisations. That is the standard that offers us the highest level of international law, of confidence. One of the bases on which Irish troops can be deployed is that of strengthening international security. I am sure the Tánaiste will agree that is very broad. Can he tell us a bit more about what he has in mind?

Sentiment score: 0.34

On the safeguards and so on, the difficulty is who the arbiter will be. The arbiter will be the Government of the day, which will be the self-same Government that intends to deploy the troops.

Sentiment score: -0.03

That does create a difficulty, if a Government is so motivated to deploy troops and it is being asked to evaluate. I understand the arguments the Tánaiste has made about the UN Security Council. It seems to me that it is a sovereign act by a sovereign Parliament to decide that this is the threshold. We have decided that this is the test. The Parliament here sets tests for numerous areas of public policy. Sometimes we ask other organisations to do that. We asked the Low Pay Commission to set tests as to an appropriate method of determining low pay. We do ask outside bodies at times where we trust that they have a certain standard to be an arbiter. The Government is going to be an arbiter. That is fundamentally what is proposed in the legislation.

Sentiment score: 0.05

3. Deputy Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Defence to outline, further to recent Dáil debates, his views on past health and safety measures in the Air Corps, and potential engagements with interested groups; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [31321/25]

Sentiment score: 0.26

This question relates to issues relating to the safety measures, or lack thereof, that potentially existed in terms of Air Corps aircraft maintenance personnel over the course of recent decades. We spoke about two broad areas during our last discussion. One was the court-related issues. I flag that in response to the points the Minister made last time, several people have told me the engagement with the State Claims Agency is not anything like it should be. Even separate to that, there is the need for a policy-oriented response from the Department.

Sentiment score: 0.07

On that point, while I understand there are restrictions on what the Minister can respond to me on, a former personnel member who was a part of aircraft maintenance said there was no current active engagement between the State Claims Agency and litigants despite what the Minister had claimed in the Dáil the previous week. The former personnel member stated that nobody from the State Claims Agency had talked to any survivors since before the recent settlement of a particular case. I ask the Minister to take that information away. I know there are limits on what he can say in response to me, but I ask him to take this information with him and put it to the State Claims Agency that there is not engagement. Aside from that, I am glad to hear what the Minister said in respect of options being looked at. In terms of what we should be looking at, this seems clear to me. There are things that need to be worked up, but one of the most fundamental things is a health review and analysis of health outcomes. Related to that, it must be ensured that people are not out of pocket as a result of the healthcare situations they have found themselves in.

Sentiment score: 0.14

That is in the area we need to be looking at. There are potentially more things than that, but that is one of the crucial areas. It is not only the case here that other sectors or categories of people have had wrongs inflicted on them and sometimes it is difficult to put them all through the courts for a variety of reasons, but it has also been the case internationally. I have raised previously with the Minister some of the responses in Australia and the Netherlands in the context of aircraft maintenance personnel. The self-same issue has arisen elsewhere and it has been on the healthcare side of things. Regarding what the Minister said about exploring options, I have two questions. What kind of timescale are we looking at? I would welcome the opportunity to have a briefing with the Minister and some of his officials, but, equally, it would hardly be appropriate if it was simply Members of this House who had that opportunity. There are representative organisations, such as the Air Corps Chemical Abuse Survivors organisation and potentially others. It would be only right that at some stage in this process they would have the opportunity to have an engagement.

Sentiment score: 0.06