Defence Forces report €41m underspend in 2002

The cancellation of a helicopter contract contributed to an overall underspend by the Defence Forces of €41 million last year, Chief of Staff, Lieut Gen Colm Mangan, revealed this afternoon.

American company Sikorsky was to have supplied up to five aircraft for search and rescue and troop transport at a cost of €40 million, some €12.5 million of which had been put aside in last year's Defence budget.

At the publication of the Defence Forces annual report for 2002 Lieut Gen Mangan said total expenditure for the year was €713 million nearly €40 million less than was spent last year. The Republic has one of the lowest defence budgets in the EU.

The report shows Defence Forces' cash and explosives escorts decreased slightly from a high in 2001 to 24,951 "man days" - a decrease of more than three thousand.

It was anticipated that Aid to the Civil Power - when the Army assists other organs of the State - would decline apace with the declining of the paramilitary threat in the North.

The Defence Forces maintained its high level of commitment to UN and other peacekeeping missions, the report show. The Chief of Staff said the Minister of Defence has "offered a 'palette' of forces" up to a ceiling of 850 personnel to the European Rapid Reaction Force.

Lieut Gen Mangan said "a number of different sized units and sub-units, covering the whole range of combat, combat support and combat service units, were offered".

He said 2,600 soldiers were tested in 2002 to ensure their training was up to international standards to perform humanitarian and rescue tasks, crisis management, peace-keeping and peace-making tasks or to enforce UN resolutions.

Lieut Gen Mangan said future overseas deployments would be concentrated in Kosovo with 250 soldiers dispatched to the region in August this year.

While admitting his disappointment at the loss of the Sikorsky contract, the Chief of Staff said this was offset by an order for eight Pilatus turbo-prop training planes due for delivery by the middle of next year at a cost of €55 million.

During 2001 the Air Corps provided 170 flights for members of the Government, 134 of which were in the Gulfstream GIV jet. The Air Corps also flew 81 air ambulance flights and carried out 92 search and rescue missions over sea and land.

A relatively high number of departures from the Forces, some 796 in 2002, placed "considerable strain on its training capacity. It said the average number of staff last year was 10,559 with 250 additional personnel in training.