Helicopters scandal - Millions wasted

IF someone in any company of consequence signed off on a €3 million contract for machinery without ensuring that it was fit for purpose only to discover that it was not they would be fired.

No debate, no touchy-feely counselling or retraining, no discussion, no soft-landing, no golden handshakes, no full-time golf at 52, just a you-did-what? conversation and a curt goodbye followed by a well deserved P45 moment.

Yet, as the Dáil Public Accounts Committee, heard yesterday the Department of Defence did not inspect two helicopters expected to carry Irish soldiers on a peace mission in Chad only to discover that the €2,100-a-day aircraft were not licensed to carry troops.

The person responsible is probably still working for the department insisting to anyone foolish enough to listen that “they have paid their share for a recession they did not cause and won’t pay a cent more”.

This is intolerable and symptomatic of what is wrong with our public service and shows why recent protests were more or less exclusively public sector jamborees.

Not only should the person responsible be fired — no early retirement nonsense — the Minister for Defence Willie O’Dea should accept he is responsible and resign. That there is no prospect of either of these things happening perfectly reflects the rotten culture of unaccountability that has got us into the mess we are in. That we are at the mercy of these people is frightening.