The Minister for Defence, Mr Smith, will tomorrow express his "grave disappointment" at the conduct of the Air Corps, when he addresses the PDFORRA annual delegate conference in Waterford.
An "unusually high incidence of sickness" among winching crews is reported to be affecting the Air Corps' search and rescue service for the north-west, effectively preventing the Corps from providing 24-hour cover from the Sligo base over the weekend.
The Air Corps has been using a leased Sikorsky medium-lift helicopter at Sligo since the summer, during daylight hours, and had planned to provide 24-hour cover this month.
Mr Gerry Rooney, general secretary of PDFORRA, admitted the Sligo base was not providing full 24-hour cover and attributed the level of sick-leave being taken to "a hostile and difficult working environment, with harassment and related stress".
He denied there was any "work-to-rule" or withdrawal of services by crews for any reason other than illness and stress.
About 15 members of the winch crew were suffering work-related stress, he said, with about half of these regularly attending the Defence Forces welfare services as a result.
"The harassment has been going on since the summer when we had a dispute concerning safety issues," said Mr Rooney.
"Substantial progress has been made on safety concerns but the harassment issue is now central. I think the only thing that will resolve the situation is intervention by a third party," said Mr Rooney. A spokesman would not go into details about what the Minister intended to say at tomorrow's annual delegate conference, but said: "You can take it that he will be expressing grave disappointment at the way things are being handled in Sligo-Donegal."
The Minister said he had been advised by the military authorities that in spite of the "incidence of sickness" over the weekend, full operational capability could be provided for search, air ambulance, island and disaster relief. Any activities which did not require use of live winching, could also be carried out.
The Minister accused Fine Gael TD for Donegal South, Mr Dinny McGinley, of being "misinformed" in claiming that there was a "crisis situation".
Mr Rooney told The Irish Times last night that PDFORRA had withdrawn its pay claim "about three weeks ago".
"The main area of concern is the ongoing hostile working environment."
Mr McGinley has called on the Minister and his Department to "immediately resume serious negotiations to defuse a rapidly deteriorating situation".
As reported by The Irish Times, PDFORRA has withdrawn from the conciliation and arbitration mechanism under which it had lodged the pay claim on behalf of winch crews. The Department of Defence has said it is committed to finding a solution, but can only do so through the conciliation and arbitration mechanism.