In fairness to the IAC, they have been seriously shafted several times in regard to equipment and other funding, such as the Sikorsky fiasco and the government aircraft bungles.
This has resulted in among other things the private sector mopping up the SAR role.
The Phoenix has consistently mentioned "interesting" dealings with a certain aerospace agent for European aviation firms.
As I have said in the past, I think a good thing for aviation in general would be the closure of Weston in favour of developing Bal with relaid runways, ILS Cat III, a spur from the Dublin-Cork rail line (which passes v. near) and a good junction at the Naas Road, and moving GA and low cost there. Thus the proximity issues of Weston to DUB and BAL are solved without a loss of function.
The proceeds of the transfer of Bal to a semistate or leasing it to an airport operator (NOT a sale) to go on developing underused airfields such as WAT, CFN, SXL, etc. as joint IAC bases and on a decent multirole transport aircraft such as the A319CJ for UN deployments, since some Hawk 100/200s or Alphajets would be too much to hope for.