Smith rejects proposal for coastguard service

The Minister for Defence has turned down a Department of Finance proposal to amalgamate the Naval Service and Air Corps into a coastguard.

Mr Smith also said that he wanted to expedite the proposed 10 to-18-year re-equipping and restructuring plan for both services. He will shortly announce measures to deal with the Naval Service staffing crisis, and said he planned to match constant recruitment with constant re-equipment.

The Minister expects the final implementation report on this plan for the Naval Service within the next week. Drawn up in consultation with the Department of Defence, it is currently with the Chief-of-Staff of the Defence Forces, Lieut Gen David Stapleton. He expects the Air Corps implementation plan within a month.

Mr Smith's decision to reject the Department of Finance proposal is the first clear indication, after months of uncertainty, that he intends to adhere to the spirit of the Price Waterhouse review.

However, "we are not going to be howling to the moon", Mr Smith warned, with reference to negotiating increased budgets for equipment. The demand for 12 ships made by the Naval Service's Representative Association of Commissioned Officers (RACO) did not make sense in terms of rates of recruitment, and there had to be a sense of realism, he said.

The contract for a ninth ship is due to be confirmed at the launching of the eighth Naval Service vessel, LE Roisin, early next month. The £24 million ship will take another two years to build, by which time the oldest vessel, the LE Deirdre, is expected to have been decommissioned.

New aircraft are also to be purchased for the Air Corps, Mr Smith said in an interview with The Irish Times. The sale of existing Defence Forces property and the future of Baldonnel could bring in substantial funds to help the development.

The Minister said he accepted that the Air Corps did not favour the purchase of more Dauphin helicopters, and he was awaiting proposals as part of this wing's implementation plan for more suitable multi-task craft.

Given the level of investment spent, and about to be committed, it would not make sense to amalgamate both services into a coastguard, the Minister said. Both would retain their military structure, but there would be changes in terms of "releasing people for operational duty where civilians can be employed to do that work", he said.

Earlier this week the Flag Officer commanding the Naval Service, Commodore John Kavanagh, said the service would not object to plans for a coastguard, as long as it was properly funded, retained its military capacity and drew on the US Coast Guard model.

The Department of Finance, which initiated the controversial coastguard proposal, had been a party to the Price Waterhouse consultancy review of the Naval Service and Air Corps, published just over a year ago. It had recommended a £235 million re-equipment plan for both services, with an increase in Naval Service staff, a decrease in Air Corps staff and greater efficiencies in both wings.

However, even as the Minister commissioned an implementation plan for Price Waterhouse, his Department also sought submissions for a defence white paper.

The Department of Finance's unpublished submission took the opposite line to Price Waterhouse, in proposing the reorganisation of the Naval Service along the lines of a coastguard and the possible merging of the Naval Service and Air Corps into a single structure with coastguard functions, or alternatively, the incorporation of a rationalised military air wing into an Army brigade structure.