A GOVERNMENT steering committee has shelved a consultancy study of the Air Corps and Naval Service and intends to widen its terms of reference to allow for "long term strategic decisions".
The Department of the Taoiseach has confirmed that the consultants, Price Waterhouse, are being asked to consider "future arrangements" on search and rescue and fishery protection. The original review of the two wings of the Defence Forces, which is part of the implementation plan approved by the Government in March of last year, was commissioned last June and was due to have been completed by last November.
The Fianna Fail spokesman on marine and defence, Mr Michael Smith, has criticised the move and has accused the Government of engaging in a "deliberate stalling exercise". Morale in both the Naval Service and Air Corps was "on the ground", Mr Smith said, and the consultants were "quite annoyed". The Air Corps, which lost nine senior pilots last year, is due to lose another 11 to commercial airlines, while the Naval Service is also understaffed.
Price Waterhouse said yesterday it had not been informed of new terms of reference, but declined to comment further.
Mr Smith, who has tabled a priority question in the Dail this week on the delay, said it was "very clear six months ago" that the Government was going to shelve the review. "The Air Corps and Naval Service have problems enough with the widening range off responsibilities, including drugs interdiction, fisheries surveillance, without being unable to rely on the full support of the Minister for Defence and his Department," he said.
Responding to a question from she Fianna Fail leader, Mr Bertie Ahern, in the Dail on March 26th the Minister of State at the Department of the Taoiseach, Mr Jim Higgins, said a draft report had been prepared on the basis of the original terms of reference. These terms envisaged that the consultants would "recommend numbers and grades required to deliver on the existing roles and tasks" of the Naval Service and Air Corps.
As the study progressed, however, it had become clear that "from a Government perspective", further consideration of future arrangements for providing services such as search and rescue and fishery protection would be necessary" to "allow long term strategic decisions to bed taken".
"The consultants are being asked to consider the issues and their report is expected before the end of summer 1997," he said.
The Representative Association of Commissioned Officers (RACO) said yesterday it would be seeking clarification from the Minister for Defence and the Marine, Mr Barrett, in a meeting later this week. "We have not been informed about the delay, and we will be pressing the Minister on the issue as it is having a very bad effect on morale," Comdt Brian O'Keeffe, general secretary of RACO said.
The original report is understood to have recommended a more favourable staffing ratio for the Air Corps, with an increase in numbers at executive level and a decrease at technical level. It also recommended at least 100 extra personnel for the Naval Service. Government sources have already tried to assuage Army fears that it might lose personnel as a result, by promising that a "liberal approach" would be taken to extra staff in the Defence Forces if the numbers did not rise "significantly" above the overall recommended figure of 11,500.
