Why the Air Corps isn't better equipped

[FMolloy]

Bertie has a great love of sport, but still he couldn't get agreement on a National Stadium (a project that would get more support from the public than an improved AC). What makes you think he would have done any better had he been into aviation?

[Silver]

Jeez you guys can be so negative sometimes !

Bertie wouldn't need much "agreement" (from the public or otherwise) if he decided to purchase, for example, 8 x EH101's or 8 x Hawk jets for the AC as it would simply be replacing current/former aircraft (notably Dauphins/Fougas).

I'm not saying that we would have an Air Corps/Force on a par with Switzerland, but I reckon we would have a better equipped force than the current one.


(N.B. Guys, this is a lighthearted discussion)
 :'>

[FMolloy]

Bertie didn't get agreement from his coalition partners on the National Stadium. I doubt very much they'd let him spend that much money on the AC without clearing it with them first.

So again, I ask, what makes you think he'd get it?

The feelings of the Taoiseach are pretty irrelevant. The public have little interest in defence, the dept. of finance seems to have an institutional disliking of defence expenditure and the other members of his government (his own party included) would be more concerned with local infrastructure than helicopters.

It would take a strong leader, probably with single-party government, to push something like this through.

[Silver]

I didn't say that Bertie got "agreement" for the National Stadium, you alluded to the term 'agreement' in your previous post - I'm saying that he wouldn't need much agreement to replace current/former aircraft if he really wanted to !

(And the cost of, say, 8 helis and 8 jets wouldn't come to anything even close to the proposed cost of the 'Bertie bowl' stadium.)
 

The feelings of the Taoiseach are far from irrelevant !!!
Do you honestly think that the National Stadium would have been such a high profile issue if the Taoiseach had no interest in Sport '> I think not !

At the risk of repeating myself, I am not saying that we would have an Air Corps/Force on par with Switzerland or Sweden (for example) but I believe we would have a much better equipped force than at present.

I rest my case.

[FMolloy]

I'm saying that Bertie's pet project, the national stadium, got shot down because he couldn't get the backing of his coalition partners on the subject. The national stadium got far more public support than an Air Corp improvement program would have gotten.

8 heli's & 8 jet's mightn't cost as much as the Bertie Bowl, but that doesn't mean the funding would be any easier to get. Why should they buy fighters when important constituancies are lacking a hospital, RTC or whatever?

Defence will always get the short-end of the stick, it doesn't matter who's interested in it.

[FMolloy]

Also, if the PC-9's were purchased to replace the Marchetti & Fouga, what would Hawks be replacing?

[Imshi-Yallah]

Actually I've come up with my answer to the original question, because this is an irresponsible country that has never taken responsibilioty for anything yet like a spoiled child expects the same weight and recognitiona s those that have.

[Silver]

........ pretty accurate also Imshi  '>

[n-e-foo]

for me, theres a whole plethora of reasons why the air corps, and the army as a whole are not better equipped.

i think first and foremost is the fact that for 70 odd years of our states existence we were scraping by and money had to be spent on other more immediate things out of simple neccessity, so when our economy started "booming" in the mid to late 90's, there was no culture of defence spending.

when theres no culture there in the first place and our country is still alive and well after the "troubles" and the cold war, the government rationale and its fairly sound, is well lets continue the occasional purchase here and there, its served us ok thus far.

another reason, and actually this is vying for pole position as the main reason our DF is poorly equipped; jets, mbt's and frigates do not and will not win you votes.

our road systems, health, the luas etc, they are all in a mess because the same government rationale as we had throughout the 70's and 80's still presided. lets do it for the lowest possible cost, screw quality. so now as our economy hits a bumb in the road, they are a shambles and all available money has to be spent trying to clean up the mess and i'm sure at the end of it the results still wont be satisfactory.

when thats the level of leadership your dealing with, you can forget a well equipped defence force.

i dont support any political party and i think saying one party or the other would do a better job is a joke, i dont want a party in power who'll buy 24 f-16's and then @#!~ up the health care system.

governments will neglect what they can as long as they can