Apparently to save money... and there we all thought that the sale of mil facilities was ringfenced for equipment buys...
Obviously overspent on flash ad campaign - very nice actually - and nothing at all to do with the legals telling the pols that they would probably lose a court challenge to the tender process...
RTE News report
July 5, 2002
The Minister for Defence, Mr Michael Smith, TD, has announced a reduction in Defence expenditure this year.
In a statement, Mr Smith said the "painful decision" was to ensure that the overall expenditure would be in line with the original estimate for the year as a whole.
Mr Smith said plans to buy medium lift helicopters would be cancelled, but that the purchase of eight fixed wing trainer aircraft would go ahead.
He said it was expected that expenditure on compensation claims and overseas allowances would be about €12m less than expected.