The Air Corps is set to receive two new Maritime Patrol Aircraft after Defence Minister Paul Kehoe signed off on a €220 million contract for delivery.

A chronic shortage of trained pilots has forced the Air Corps to reduce the number of hours it will fly the Emergency Aeromedical Service helicopter, based in Athlone.

Representatives from the independent British Armed Forces' Pay Review Body are finally set to address a conference organised by the Defence Forces officers' representative association, RACO.

The Air Corps “seems to be a place where there’s an abnormal number of people who die prematurely”, according to a member of the Oireachtas’ Public Account Committee.

The Irish Coast Guard will be leading tributes to four helicopter heroes on the 20th anniversary of their deaths.

The delay in the involvement of the air corps in fighting the gorse fire in Donegal was because crews had to be assembled “from the four corners of the country” according to the Press Officer with the Irish Air Corps.

The Dáil is set to debate the establishment of a special committee to conduct hearings into the possible health effects of toxic chemical exposure among Air Corps personnel, after two years of revelations in the Irish Examiner, with TDs expected to back the investigation before the summer. Joe Leogue looks at what has brought us to this point.

The Department of Defence has confirmed that the number of cases it is defending against former Defence Forces staff over chemical exposure in the Air Corps has risen to eight.

The Dáil is to consider establishing a special Oireachtas inquiry into claims that Defence Forces personnel suffered serious health consequences over decades as a result of toxic chemical exposure.

An Air Corps whistleblower, leaving the Defence Forces, feels “left out on a limb” by the minister to whom he appealed for help, the Dáil has heard.

A Government initiative aimed at luring former pilots back into the Air Corps has nosedived and manpower has fallen in the service, across the ranks.

Concerns have been raised about a ‘shocking’ Irish Examiner report that an Air Corps whistleblower is to retire early due to what he claims are attempts to ‘vilify and isolate’ him.

An Air Corps whistleblower is to take early retirement from the Defence Forces, less than two months after telling the junior defence minister that he had received “continuing and unwarranted treatment” for making protected disclosures on health-and-safety issues.

The Junior Defence Minister said he is “fully satisfied” the State Claims Agency (SCA) can adequately carry out health audits in the Air Corps — despite a separate workplace safety watchdog finding a series of failings at Casement Aerodrome after a decade of annual inspections by the SCA.

The safety management of chemical hazards within the Air Corps was “significantly less developed than expected” when inspected in 2016, according to an internal report by the health watchdog.

The Naval Service and the Air Corps have taken part in an international operation which led to the capture of a suspected drug trafficking yacht.

An air corps whistleblower has been told that it is “difficult to envisage” how the Department of Defence would investigate complaints of bullying made in a protected disclosure about chemical exposure within the force.

The Defence Minister is looking for tough laws to be introduced over the use of drones.

Gardaí and the Defence Forces are reminding the public to keep drones away from fire-fighting operations.

The fort guns boomed out across the harbour and the Air Corps conducted a fly-past as part of commemorations on Spike Island to mark the 80th anniversary of the British handover of the 'Treaty Ports.'

Air Corps crews’ lives are being put at risk by reckless drone operators, who are directing them into areas where Air Corps helicopters are fighting wildfires.

The Government has not responded to a new protected disclosure on chemical exposures within the Air Corps.

The State Claims Agency is to appeal a discovery order granted to a chronically ill man who is seeking a list of the chemicals he was exposed to while working as a technician in the Air Corps.

Defence Forces bosses want the Government to establish an independent pay review board, similar to ones in Britain and Australia, to curtail the exodus of highly trained personnel who are leaving for better wages and conditions elsewhere.

TDs and senators are to visit the Air Corps headquarters, amid fears for the health and safety of staff at Casement Aerodrome.

The Department of Defence has not sought any further information from whistleblowers, on allegations that key Defence Forces documents were destroyed, a junior Minister has confirmed.

A whistleblower’s warning that documents revealing unacceptable levels of chemical exposure in the Air Corps were deliberately destroyed was sent to the Department of Defence over a year before it looked for the documents — and discovered they are missing.

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has said he believes the courts should decide whether former Air Corps staff are suffering chronic illnesses due to chemical exposure.

Labour leader Brendan Howlin is not satisfied with the Government’s response to the Air Corps chemical exposure scandal, and has called for an external review of the allegations.

The State is facing a further High Court action from a former member of the Defence Forces allegedly suffering chronic ill-health due to exposure to chemicals in the Air Corps.

In a series of articles across 2017, the Irish Examiner revealed serious concerns about the working environment within the Air Corps — matters that have seen allegations of a deliberate cover-up, of victimisation of whistleblowers, and of a lackadaisical attitude towards health and safety that has put lives at risk, writes Joe Leogue.

Three new fixed wing aircraft are being bought for the Air Corps at a cost of €32m.

An official tasked with reviewing whistleblower allegations of chemical exposure within the Air Corps was not given access to the Defence Forces’ own report on the claims, the Government has confirmed.

The Government is under increasing pressure to set up a commission of investigation into alleged health and safety management failures at Casement Aerodrome.