Tánaiste to seek Cabinet approval on bonus scheme to keep specialists in air corps

Simon Harris will tell Cabinet that there is a worldwide shortage of air traffic control personnel and proposed measures are needed to help return the air corps to a 24/7 service. File Picture: Sasko Lazarov/© RollingNews.ie

A bonus scheme to incentivise highly skilled specialists to stay in the air corps is to be rolled out amid serious shortages that are impacting operations.

Tánaiste and the minister for defence, Simon Harris, will seek Cabinet approval to immediately extend a service commitment scheme — which currently includes annual bonus payments of around €22,000 to air corps pilots — to air traffic control personnel.

It comes amid reports that Irish military flight operations at Casement Aerodrome in Baldonnel are to move to part-time hours, and may soon have to cease entirely due to severe staff shortages. The cuts could impact rescue, medical, and policing services.

Mr Harris will tell Cabinet that there is a worldwide shortage of air traffic control personnel and proposed measures are needed to help return the air corps to a 24/7 service.

Key worker support

Separately, ministers will sign off on extra funding to expand the number of training places for key workers in health and social care, disability, and education.

This funding will support the creation of 461 additional annual places in these priority professions, with the majority of new places commencing this year.

This immediate expansion will be in nine key areas: Physiotherapy; occupational therapy; speech and language therapy; radiation therapy; radiography; podiatry; social work; medical science; and dietetics.

Higher education minister James Lawless is also examining graduate entry programmes, further education models, and apprenticeship-type routes to increase the output of healthcare and therapy professionals across the system.

Meanwhile, social protection minister Dara Calleary will bring his department's annual report to Cabinet. It shows that there were 2.78m people in employment in the final quarter of 2024, an increase of almost 72,000 annually.

Overall expenditure in 2024 was €26.99bn, which was 26% of the Government's total spending.

Updating Cabinet on a potential trade war, Mr Harris will tell colleagues that discussions on a possible deal between the EU and the US are advancing with technical talks taking place in Washington in recent days.

The EU’s position, however, remains that if no mutually acceptable solution is reached, both existing and additional EU counter-measures could take effect on July 14.