The legal battle surrounding the awarding of the State's biggest-ever defence contract threatens Ireland's search-and-rescue services, the head of the Air Corps, Brig Gen John O'Brien, has warned.
Yesterday one of the defeated bidders, Eurocopter, opened a court effort to overturn a decision by the Minister for Defence, Mr Smith, in January to choose the Sikorsky S-92 medium-range helicopter.
In a rare public statement by a senior military officer, Brig Gen O'Brien said: "I need this like a hole in the head. It holds up the provision of search-and-rescue services. We want to get on with it.
"We are satisfied that the S-92 will do the job. Mind you, we said the same about the other aircraft. The sooner this is done and dusted the better. We are phasing out the Dauphin," he told The Irish Times.
Privately, senior Air Corps officers are furious at Eurocopter's decision to challenge the contract because it means that the delivery date of late 2003 for three helicopters will now almost certainly not be met.
Currently the Air Corps has just two serviceable Dauphin helicopters. "We will have to make decisions quickly to refurbish another one to bring the fleet numbers back to three," another Air Corps source declared.
The winter 2003 delivery date is critical to the Air Corps, because it is required to have search-and-rescue aircraft in service for two full winters before they are regarded as fully operational.
The Dauphin must operate within 120 miles of the Irish coastline and can afford to spend very little time at a rescue scene before it is required to turn back or run out of fuel.
The Sikorsky S-92, on the other hand, is able to travel 200 miles off the coast and spend 45 minutes hovering over a stricken ship. In addition, it can carry up to 15 rescued sailors.
In its quest for a judicial review, Eurocopter argues that the contract rules were changed mid-stream and, furthermore, that Sikorsky became aware of the offer prices from its competitors.
In the Dáil the Minister for Defence rejected allegations of impropriety and revealed that Eurocopter put in a reduced bid on August 3rd , two weeks before one arrived from Sikorsky.
Following the post-September 11th collapse in the aviation industry, the Minister decided to seek "best and final offers" from all of the bidders "because of the changed international situation".
Despite Eurocopter's allegation that he was not entitled to do so , the Minister said he was free to do so because all the tender prices offered had expired by September 30th.
"I made my decision in the interests of the taxpayer and strictly in accordance with the competition criteria. I stand full square behind that decision.. There was no underhand dealing.
"There was no back room collusion. This is the right decision for the country and the Air Corps," he told Opposition TDs, who had forced a special debate on the issue.
Until yesterday Eurocopter had been pursuing a court action seeking documentation relevant to the Government tender for the supply of the aircraft.However, yesterday it, after being supplied with boxes of documentation from the Department of Defence, instituted its judicial review proceedings.
A Eurocopter spokesman yesterday said the intention of the judicial review was to overturn the Government decision and have the contract taken from Sikorsky and given to Eurocopter.