Senator Gerard Craughwell- speech from 19 May 2022

In recent times capital projects in this country have been questioned, how did the National Children's Hospital go from 600 million to possibly 2 billion or more. It's no secret I've had a huge interest in search and rescue and I have been spending a considerable amount of my time and this house's time on trying to get to the bottom of what goes on with respect to search and rescue. I had been pursuing the business case that led to the PQQ being delivered. At that time I was not aware of the fact that this document, 415 pages, was the submission put forward by the Air Corps to take their one base out of the system. 415 pages of detailed work on how they would meet the criteria for search and rescue. That 415 pages was sent to be evaluated by an independent evaluator. That's the independent evaluator's report, three pages. There is not one statistical, technological or empirical reason given for them recommending that the Air Corps submission be rejected. Nothing. There is nothing in this document today and you will have it in your mailbox later on today. The Air Corps were asked to submit a rebuttal, 18 pages of detailed analysis of the consultant's report. If we go back to 1998, PricewaterhouseCoopers spoke about the search and rescue contracts and they made the point, it's in paragraph 136 of the Air Corps presentation, that SAR contracts on the west and east coast will continue on a contract basis on a recurring contract equivalent cost 4.5 million per annum with no asset transfer to the state over the contract period. They go on then and they price the cost per hour of flying search and rescue using the contractor. On the west coast, when a helicopter takes off in a search and rescue role, it's costing the taxpayers 81,000 euros per hour. On the east coast, when a helicopter takes off on a search and rescue mission, it's costing 145,000 euros per hour. Based on questions to the minister, the cost per hour of flying for the Air Corps, the cost is 4,000 euros per hour. That's 141,000 euros cheaper than the private contractor. More importantly, the consultant condemns the Leonardo Augusta Westinghouse 139 helicopter as not being suitable for search and rescue. That helicopter is in use in 14 countries in Europe, including Italy, Spain and Portugal, all coastal areas. I am asking today by way of a letter to the Taoiseach, Minister Ryan, Minister Coveney, Minister Donoghue, Minister McGrath and the Joint Oireachtas Committee that this process be stopped right now until we establish exactly what has led to the Air Corps being removed who could have saved the economy several million euros over the lifetime of this contract. This is outrageous, and the problem we have is when you talk about getting access to the business case, if you can't see who was eliminated from the business case, then you have no idea what took place. So, to my mind, this has to be stopped now. I do not want to see this country spending 1.5 to 2 billion euros on something that we'll have nothing to do for at the end. Thank you, Senator Crockwell.