Ex-Air Corps members demand ‘truth’ after €2m chemicals case

Despite a promise of justice, Air Corps chemical exposure survivors say the Irish State continues to deny and delay accountability

A former member of the Defence Forces who says his health has been destroyed by exposure to dangerous chemicals during his service has called for the Government to “let the truth come out”.

The State agreed last week to pay €2m to Gary Coll, 51, to settle a legal case taken by him in relation to his claims, without accepting liability.

Mr Coll served as an aviation technician with the Irish Air Corps in Casement Aerodrome, Baldonnel, between 1991 and 1997.

His case is the first of ten which have been taken by former members in relation to what they say was the failure by the State to protect them from exposure to dangerous chemicals.

Speaking on RTÉ’s Upfront with Katie Hannon, Mr Coll said the State is “hiding behind the State Claims Agency, hiding behind the Courts.”

“The minister stands up and says he can’t look at a health and safety issue because he has to wait for the go-ahead from the State Claims Agency, or the Courts? No. It’s a cop-out to hide behind the court cases,” he said.

Mr Coll says he now suffers from chronic fatigue, has issues with his heart, breathing, and memory, recurring ulcers, and is unable to maintain his core body temperature.

He says during his service there was exposure to chemicals during basic work tasks.

“There was fumes, chemicals being used openly with no extraction systems, within feet of where you worked,” Mr Coll said.

“The place was a mess, the floors were that dirty that people were afraid they would catch fire, there was that much oil and chemicals spilled on the floor of the hangers,” he said.

There was also a tradition of ‘tubbing’ in the Air Corps, whereby individuals would be dunked into tanks of chemicals for various purposes, including as part of initiations or hazing.

He said such tubbing happened to him several times.

https://x.com/RTEUpfront/status/1889094673647440041

Mr Coll joined the Air Corps as a teenager, and represented it in national and international rugby and rowing tournaments in the earlier years of his service.

He said he left his job in his mid-20s due to a slew of medical conditions he experienced while he was still serving, including headaches, vomiting, diarrhoea and nosebleeds.

He now requires the use of a mobility scooter or walking stick to get around.

“I suffered anxiety for years, about 2004 or 2005 I started developing neurological problems, pins and needles, tremors and shakes, it started effecting my balance, my memory’s gone, my short-term memory.”

“In a few months time, I’ll probably forget being here tonight,” Mr Coll said.

Two other former Air Corps members also spoke on the programme. Neither are currently taking legal cases, but both believe exposure to chemicals during their service has significantly damaged their health.

Paul Flynn, 52, spoke to presenter Katie Hannon by video call from his hospital bed. He has been in hospital for 15 months.

He joined the Air Corps in 1988 a week after his 16th birthday. From 1991 to 1998, when he left the service, he worked preparing aircraft parts for painting with primers, topcoats, and spraying.

He said in his early days working in the role there was no protective equipment “at all” provided. Several years later, he said he bought his own air-fed mask, but the line installed to feed it was placed beside a compressor in another room where chemicals were also present.

“I have issues with breathing, sometimes I’m on oxygen… I would like the Government to acknowledge that the chemicals have injured people,” Mr Flynn said, who accepts he cannot definitively link his health issues to chemical exposure.

“The Australian and Dutch government have admitted the same chemicals that we used caused the same injuries we have. I want the Irish Government to admit to that and provide us with whatever care they we need.”

Mr Flynn, aged 52, says his medical team is now advising he move to a nursing home.

https://x.com/RTEUpfront/status/1889090652786286649

Michael Byrne joined the Air Corps having served earlier in the army, he entered to train as a winchman, having passed a fitness selection course.

Unlike Mr Coll and Mr Flynn, he did not serve in the paint shop, but he says he was exposed to chemicals during refuelling of aircraft without PPE.

He said he was splashed with chemicals, and had to breathe in chemicals, as he was required to keep his face close to the refuelling point on the aircrafts.

“There was often – a common occurrence – you’d get an airlock, a backwash of fuel into the eyes, into the mouth, ingested it,” he said.

Within a year of joining the Air Corps after the army, Mr Byrne said, his health began to deteriorate, and he eventually left his job.

“I joined the Air Corps to hang out of helicopters. I joined it for the adventure. When I became sick and I wasn’t able to do the duties anymore – and because under aviation law because I was on high dose steroids, you’re not allowed to fly – I was given jobs like answering phones, I was cleaning toilets at times. So I left, disheartened, and I left.”

“I’ve had two knee replacements, I’m due two hip replacements, I currently have a fractured spine, I’m in a brace at the moment, from just doing menial tasks around the house.”

He said he can not definitively trace his health issues to chemical exposure, but says the timeline is significant.

“I was perfectly healthy, from that point – within a year – I went from running ten miles a day to not being able to run across the road when a car came.”

Mr Byrne is not taking a legal case because he is “just trying to get through day-to-day at the moment, just with pain and managing everything like that.

“I want answers, I’m going downhill, my elbows swell, my knees swell … It was proven in Australia, why can’t they use those templates? At home, most days I don’t move, I can’t get up” he said.

In Australia, in 2009 there was a parliamentary inquiry into similar issues which resulted in payments and healthcare services – including cancer screening – being provided to former Royal Australian Air Force members who were exposed to dangerous chemicals.

Several former Air Corps members who say they have been exposed are calling on the Government to take similar action. In particular, they are calling on Taoiseach Micheál Martin to act.

The Taoiseach and other ministers note that the handling of complaints raised about chemical exposed fall under a Tribunal of Inquiry which was set up after the so-called ‘Women of Honour’, which revealed concerns about bullying, misogyny and sexual assault within the Defence Forces.

In June 2017, Mr Coll and others met Mr Martin, then the leader of the opposition, to outline their concerns and issues related to chemical exposure.

Mr Martin subsequently told the Dáil that three whistleblowers had warned in November 2015 about conditions in the Air Corps maintenance units in Baldonnel, and the degree to which staff were “exposed to very dangerous solvents and chemicals.”

Mr Martin at the time called on the government of the day to commission an independent board of inquiry “into this entire affair and scandal,” summarising the then-government’s response as “deny, deny, deny, resist, resist, resist.”

“The linkage of the particular chemicals to cancer-causing diseases, genetic mutation, neurological conditions and chronic diseases have been well-established”, Mr Martin said at the time.

In a statement to Upfront from Katie Hannon, a spokesperson for Mr Martin said “throughout his time as Taoiseach, and as Minister for Defence, the health and safety of the men and women of the Defence Forces has been a priority.

“There are a number of other personal injury claims currently active before the courts, and it wouldn’t be appropriate to encroach on the independence of the legal process.

“The Defence Forces Tribunal of Inquiry was established in June 2024 and, as part of its terms of reference, will investigate the response to complaints made regarding the use of hazardous chemicals within Air Corps’ headquarters at Casement Aerodrome, Baldonnel.”

The Department of Defence told Upfront with Katie Hannon: “The Health and Wellbeing of the men and women working in the Air Corps is a priority for the Tánaiste and Minister for Defence, as it is for the Defence Forces Management and the Department of Defence.

“The decision to take litigation is a matter for each individual, as is the decision to engage in dialogue to explore and potentially reach a settlement in relation to such matters. In respect of the recently reported case, the parties agreed to settle the matter before the commencement of the trial, on terms agreed by both sides, with the benefit of legal advice at every stage of the process.”

https://www.rte.ie/news/upfront/2025/0211/1495941-ex-air-corps-members-demand-truth-after-2m-chemicals-case

*****

Delay – Deny – Die

Air Corps chemical poisoning: Betrayal, legal battles, and a decade-long fight for justice

Despite a promise of justice, Air Corps chemical exposure survivors say the Irish State continues to deny and delay accountability

Meeting Micheál Martin on Tuesday, June 20, 2017 is a moment that is etched on Gary Coll’s brain.

As the then leader of the opposition, the now Taoiseach spent the best part of an hour with the former Air Corps aviation technician and five of his colleagues in Leinster House.

They had met him, at his invitation, to plead their case about the need for urgent State intervention into the issues around chemical poisoning in the air corps.

At the time, around 40 Air Corps personnel under the age of 65 were understood to died in the previous 27 years from suicide, cardiovascular events and cancer. Hundreds more were suffering a raft of chemical exposure-related illnesses.

They all mostly maintained aircraft without using PPE, and with little or no training or advice about the toxic chemicals they were either working with or in the vicinity of.

At the end of the meeting Mr Martin, who went on to become Taoiseach in June 2020, vowed to be an advocate to their cause.

Just before the meeting concluded, Gary limped over to him and asked if he would still support air corps chemical exposure survivors when he became Taoiseach.

Gary, who last Wednesday was awarded €2m in a settlement to his High Court claim for damages against the State, recalled:

“He looked me firmly in the eye, and — as he shook my hand — said he would because it was, in his words, ‘the right thing to do’.”

Gary bristles with anger as he recalls the moment.

Read full article by Neil Michael at  the Irish Examiner
https://www.irishexaminer.com/news/spotlight/arid-41570956.html

*****

Delay – Deny – Die

Over a decade on, ill Air Corps technicians still await a fair hearing

The settlement between the State and Gary Coll closes one chapter in the allegations by former Air Corps technicians that they were exposed to dangerous chemicals while working on military vehicles. However, as Joe Leogue outlines, many more cases and issues of disclosure remain unresolved

Ex-Air Corps member Gary Coll from Lifford, Co. Donegal. The State has agreed to pay €2 million to a former Air Corps technician who was allegedly exposed to toxic chemicals which he says caused severe health difficulties. Photo by Joe Dunne

A settlement on the steps of a court usually marks the conclusion of a dispute — however, the reported €2m pay-out to Defence Forces mechanic Gary Coll on Wednesday is but another development in a bitter dispute between the State and former Air Corps technicians that has raged on for over a decade.

Mr Coll settled his High Court action against the State having alleged he was exposed to various dangerous chemicals while he worked at Casement Aerodrome in Baldonnel, Dublin. The settlement was made without an admission of liability.

The State contended it provided a safe workplace at Casement, and did not allow inappropriate work practices there.

The settlement is a milestone in an ongoing saga that is complex, but at its core comes down to two simple, related, questions; did the State fail in its duty to protect scores of Defence Forces staff from the impact of harmful chemicals, and were there attempts to cover this up?

Mr Coll’s case was the first of 10 such legal actions to come to an end, with all 10 cases bearing similar complaints. The first legal claims were lodged with the High Court in 2013, and all litigants worked in repair and service workshops based in Casement Aerodrome.

All 10 say that they suffered chronic conditions including cancer and neurological problems as a direct result of their exposure to the chemicals with which they came into contact as part of their duties when servicing Air Corps aircraft.

In 2017, then in opposition, Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin was scathing of the report, accusing the government of knowingly appointing a reviewer who, by his own admission, was unable to meet the terms of reference of the investigation.

“It’s farcical. It seems to me there are no records of compliance with health regulations, which is very, very serious because in their absence one has to conclude that the probability is they were not complied with,” he said.

“The government needs to establish a forensic examination into this,” Mr Martin added.

“I don’t think it is acceptable to wait for court cases against the State to conclude as there is no guarantee these legal proceedings will establish what happened in the past.”

That line has proven particularly prescient eight years later. The settlement of Mr Coll’s case this week means that no evidence was heard. Nothing has yet established what has happened in the past.

This matters to the former Air Corps mechanics for many reasons. Chief among these is that since 2018 the government rejected opposition calls for a healthcare programme for these workers — similar to the Australian model — on the basis that the courts were the place to establish liability.

Read full article by Joe Leogue at  the Irish Examiner
https://www.irishtimes.com/crime-law/courts/2025/02/05/state-agrees-2m-settlement-in-air-corps-chemical-tubbing-case/

*****

Delay – Deny – Die

State agrees €2m settlement in Air Corps chemical ‘tubbing’ case

Central to Gary Coll’s claims was that he underwent ‘tubbing’, a form of hazing where workers were submerged in a bath of unspecified chemicals and oil

The State has agreed to pay €2 million to a former Air Corps technician who was allegedly exposed to toxic chemicals which he says caused severe health difficulties.

The case against the Department of Defence is the first of 10 personal injuries cases due before the courts relating to the exposure of Air Corps members to dangerous chemicals and solvents used in aircraft maintenance.

Gary Coll (51), from Lifford, Co Donegal, joined the Air Corps in 1991, when he was 17, and worked in the avionics section until 1997.

In a statement of claim, he made a large number of allegations against his former employer including that he was not provided with a safe working environment at the Air Corps headquarters in Baldonnell, Co Dublin, and that there was inadequate supervision regarding the use of dangerous chemicals.

Central to Mr Coll’s claims was that he underwent “tubbing”, a form of hazing where workers were submerged in a bath of unspecified chemicals and oil.

Mr Coll, who was once an accomplished athlete, detailed several psychological and physical issues that he alleged were caused by the chemicals. He said he is unable to walk any significant distance without a cane.

Read full article by Conor Gallagher at the Irish Times
https://www.irishtimes.com/crime-law/courts/2025/02/05/state-agrees-2m-settlement-in-air-corps-chemical-tubbing-case/

*****

Delay – Deny – Die

Was the Engine Shop / Avionics complex at Irish Air Corps condemned before demolition?

We revisit an old Parliamentary Question that was never fully resolved.

Personnels say ERF/Avionics was condemned and placed out of bounds, previous junior minister says no record of this.

Perhaps Simon Coveney could “ask someone”?

Written answers – Wednesday 5th July 2017- Department of Defence Properties

Lisa Chambers (Mayo, Fianna Fail)

269. To ask the Taoiseach and Minister for Defence the reason or fault for which a building (details supplied) was condemned and ordered out of bounds to all personnel; the date on which the building was condemned; the person that signed the order condemning the building; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [31724/17]

Paul Kehoe (Wexford, Fine Gael)

I have been advised by the military authorities that it is not possible to provide the information requested by the Deputy within the allocated time. However, I have requested that the information be sourced as a matter of urgency and I will reply to the Deputy as soon as it is available.

No further response

Written answers – Thursday 12th October 2017 – Department of Defence Properties

Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein)

188. To ask the Taoiseach and Minister for Defence the reason or fault for which a building (details supplied) at Casement Aerodrome, Dublin was condemned and ordered out of bounds to all personnel; the date of condemnation; the person that signed the order condemning the building; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [43216/17]

Paul Kehoe (Wexford, Fine Gael)

I have been advised by the military authorities that the former ERF Avionics building, which was a mixed brick and prefabricated structure, was demolished in 2009 as a direct result of the completion of more permanent, bespoke designed workshops in 2007.

They have further advised that following a review of records at the relevant locations within the Defence Forces that no known documentation exists indicating that this building was ever condemned or placed out of bounds prior to being demolished.

*****

The ERF / Avionics complex was highly contaminated and placed out of bounds in September 2007. Air Corps engineers where also actually fearful that the building would collapse during use.

However, in 2008 rooms on the Avionics side were pressed into use as indoor training areas for the Air Corps College. These indoor training areas shared contaminated air with ERF through interlinked open attic spaces thus further exposing personnel in an unprotected manner to dangerous chemical fumes such as dichloromethane.

Also in 2008 personnel who served in ERF sought their medical files from the Defence Forces and subsequently in early 2009 the building was demolished. 

DELAY – DENY – DIE

Dáil Éireann Written Answers 16/12/20 – “Not an Outdoor Gymnasium” adjacent to Spray Paint Exhaust

Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein)

QUESTION NO: 149

To ask the Taoiseach and Minister for Defence the person or body that chose the installation location of the recently installed outdoor gymnasium at Casement Aerodrome, Baldonnel, County Dublin. [43855/20]

QUESTION NO: 150

To ask the Taoiseach and Minister for Defence the way in which the Air Corps formation safety office allowed a leisure facility such as the new outdoor gymnasium at Casement Aerodrome, Baldonnel, County Dublin, to be installed 15 m to 20 m from the low level exhaust stack of the Air Corps spray paint facility; if the exhaust stack routinely emits chemicals that are carcinogenic, mutagenic or toxic to reproduction; and if he has full confidence in the current Air Corps chemicals health and safety regime. [43856/20]

QUESTION NO: 151

To ask the Taoiseach and Minister for Defence the cost of the new outdoor gym; the cost of installation; and the potential cost of relocating it to a safer alternative location at Casement Aerodrome, Baldonnel, County Dublin. [43857/20]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)

I propose to take Questions Nos. 149 to 151, inclusive, together.

The Deputy will be aware that three protected disclosures were received in late 2015 and January 2016 in relation to the Air Corps. Legal advice was sought and an independent reviewer was appointed. The Reviewer’s independent report considered the Defence Forces health and safety regime, its current policy and its application. Although the report found that the Defence Forces regime appears to be capable of meeting statutory requirements, it makes a number of observations; including in relation to documentation, health surveillance, and exposure monitoring. It also notes that the Health and Safety Authority (HSA) is the appropriate statutory body to deal with such allegations. The report of the independent reviewer was provided to the individuals who made the protected disclosures and it was also published on the Department of Defence website.

In parallel to the independent review, following an inspection in 2016 by the HSA, the Air Corps had continued to work with the HSA to improve its health and safety regime. The HSA has formally noted the considerable progress made to-date by the Defence Forces towards implementation of a safety management system for the control of hazardous substances. The HSA has now closed its investigation. However, it must be noted that in the Air Corps health and safety is a matter of ongoing monitoring, supervision and adjustment.

I am advised by my military authorities that the facility referred to by the Deputy is in fact an outdoor training area as distinct from an outdoor Gym. This equipment was installed at a cost of €21,918 including the necessary site works. I am further advised that the Defence Forces do not plan to relocate the equipment elsewhere as they are not aware of any safety concerns pertaining to the current location.

*****

The Air Corps base at Baldonnel, Co. Dublin comprises several hundred hectares of space. That the Air Corps could install an outdoor training facility within metres of the exhaust stack of the Spray Paint Facility either shows a staggering level of confidence in the filtration capabilities of the extraction system or utter incompetence.

The outdoor training facility or “not an outdoor gym” is built on the site of the old Avionics/Engine Shop complex which was demolished when sick personnel who worked in the location started to seek their medical files. Prior to demolition the building was condemned and marked out of bounds but the minister as denied it was ever condemned in previous parliamentary questions. 

Dangerous chemicals routinely emitted by the Air Corps spray paint facility include the following that are highly dangerous to human health and especially dangerous to the health of pregnant females and their unborn child as they are capable of causing genetic mutational harm leading to congenital birth defects.

        • acetone
        • cyclohexane
        • ethylbenzene
        • heptane
        • hexamethylene diisocyanate
        • hexane
        • methyl acetate
        • methyl ethyl ketone
        • phenol
        • stoddard solvent
        • toluene
        • xylene
        • zinc chromate

For decades these very same chemicals exited this low level exhaust stack, blew across the road and into the windows of Avionics Squadron & Engine Repair Flight likely harming health and likely contributing to the untimely deaths of multiple personnel in both locations. 

DELAY – DENY – DIE

Making babies – Another human cost of the Irish Air Corps Toxic Chemical Health & Safety scandal

This article was originally published in June 2017 and is being republished as Lunchtime Live on Newstalk 106FM cover IVF & Fertility stories. 

Making babies the hard way.

There is something shameful and deviant about sitting in a small public toilet in a busy public hospital masturbating. Other people want to use the toilet, you are trying to be as quick and as quiet as possible but you have a job to do and you cant leave the cubicle until it is done.

Welcome to the glamorous world of infertility. I was married a number of years at this stage and my wife was starting to worry that pregnancy wasn’t happening for us. She had established contact with a maternity hospital over her worries. She was given a clean bill of health and now it was my turn and this started with a semen analysis to establish if I had a sufficient sperm count and also to establish the health & motility of these.

I presented at small hatch in in one of Dublin’s maternity hospitals where I was given a container, verified my name, address and DOB and was sent on my way to find a free toilet cubical where I could “produce” a sample.

After the job was done I returned the sample to the hatch where I was told that results would be available within the hour, not to me but to my wife’s gynaecologist. So the next day I rang his office for the results and was told that he couldn’t fit me in for an appointment for at least 3 weeks. This pissed me off greatly as I knew a semen analysis is an “eyeball” count and I wasn’t too keen to hang around for weeks awaiting the result.

I sought the consultant’s number and left a message for him to call me back to put me out of my misery. He called me back and confirmed what I had started to suspect…I had a serious fertility problem. A healthy sperm count was between 50 and 100 million sperm per m/l and mine was only 1 million. Considering that the average intercourse attempts before pregnancy in a healthy couple was 1 in 4 attempts my odds of creating a natural pregnancy were one in 400. Essentially it could take 33 years of monthly attempts for success not 4 months.

And there was worse news to come when we finally did sit and meet with the gynaecologist. Of those 1 million sperm that I did have over 90% were immotile or defective in some way so now my odds had lengthened to a 1 in 4000 chance of pregnancy. Now being fairly certain that we didn’t have over 300 years of monthly sex to create a family it became readily apparent we needed the intervention of fertility specialists. The gynaecologist told us our only option was ICSI a particularly expensive specialist form of IVF. Intracytoplasmic sperm injection is a procedure in which a single sperm is injected directly into an egg.

In that meeting with the gynaecologist I felt numb and totally drop kicked. I had reached the stage in my life where I wanted to become a father. The previous summer I had been on a rocky beach in the West of Ireland with my wife, her sister and two nieces. I remember walking along the beach with my 1 & 3 year old nieces, lifting over rocks to see the creepy crawly creatures under them, the subsequent delight of the kids and had thought “yep I could be a dad” .

As you can imagine my wife was utterly distraught at the news that we could not have children naturally. She is very good with children and had a much stronger instinct and desires for parenthood than me. The gynaecologist said that considering our ages (early thirties) and the severity of my infertility that we had no time to waste and he recommended Clane IVF clinic.

Starting IVF involves a lot of rigmarole. Further medicals, testing & analysis, and also regular tests for STDs such as hepatitis & HIV in order to protect their staff &  maintain a quality trail.

And of course during this build up our family and circle of friends are popping out sprogs like there is no tomorrow. When you find out you can’t have children naturally you start to notice every single pregnant woman you pass. Everyone is pregnant except you guys.

I do recall a dinner we went to in a friend’s house where there were 3 couples present. The host couple already had a child and over the course of the dinner the other couple declared “they had an announcement” they were expecting their first child. Obviously they were bursting with pride & happiness and we were very happy for them but immediately I could sense that my wife was distressed but “holding it together”.

After the meal was over and we said our goodbyes my wife broke down as soon as she got inside our car. It is unfortunately a reality for childless couples that other people’s good news can cause them pain. I suppose it invokes a panic that perhaps the IVF will never work and leads to a fear that we would never have “an announcement” of our own.

Eventually we received our prescription for the IVF medication which mainly injectable hormones for my wife. Although I was the one with the fertility problem all the treatment of egg production, egg harvesting and embryo transferral was naturally enough focused on my wife. She carried the can 100% for my infertility.

So off we skipped with our prescription like kids to a sweet shop, we could hardly contain our excitement. My wife required daily injections and I was the injector. Initially we were very giddy and one of our biggest problems was that one or other of us would get into a fit of giggles. It is not very easy to give an injection when one or other of you is shaking like a leaf from laughter. I became very skilled at giving the injections and on more than one occasion managed to give an injection that my wife didn’t even notice.

Part of the treatment involved regular inter-vaginal ultrasound monitoring to observe and monitor the growth of eggs. Normally a woman produces one fertile egg follicle per month alternating ovaries but during IVF the fertility drugs promote Controlled Ovarian Hyper-stimulation whereby a larger number of ripened egg follicles are produced. This is in order to harvest as many eggs as possible so that a number of embryos can be created. This increases your odds of success, IVF is very much numbers game.

I accompanied my wife to the first scan and everything was hunky dory so when some work commitments happened to coincide with the next scheduled scan my wife was happy to travel to the clinic on her own as we just saw the scan as routine and had no reason to fear anything was going amiss. So she headed down to Clane on her own and about an hour later I got a call from my wife who was sobbing uncontrollably at the other end. The nurse performing the scan had ultrasound had inserted the probe and then had gone white, she called the doctor urgently and he went white. It turned out my wife had started Hyper Ovulation Stimulation Syndrome and the cycle had to be stopped immediately.

So there and then our current chances of becoming parents evaporated. Many people will talk about the emotional roller-coaster that is IVF but we never paid much heed. We made a serious mistake and that was we never contemplated failure. We only contemplated success, failure wasn’t even on our mind, so when that failure did come we were totally unprepared. It was like the chair had been kicked out from underneath us.

As mentioned IVF essentially involves Controlled Ovarian Hyper-stimulation but Hyper Ovulation Stimulation Syndrome is a very dangerous condition where the woman reacts “too well” to the fertility drugs and produces too many ovarian follicles and is at risk of essentially an internal overdose of hormones leading to respiratory, cardiac or renal problems and can be fatal.

So getting over this HOSS involved stopping treatment and then careful monitoring to make sure the threat dissipated, we then needed my wife’s regular ovulation cycle to get back on track and as you can imagine this took a number of months. We found Clane IVF clinic to be very professional, very supportive and always felt they had our best interests to the fore and would not rush treatment cycles.

For many patients of IVF, the first cycle really is like the zeroing shots at range practice. It allows the IVF professionals get an idea to the responsiveness to IVF drugs of one woman’s body compared to another’s.

For our second cycle the IVF injection dose was adjusted and we made some significant adjustments to our expectations. This time we only contemplated failure and decided that success would be a bonus. This approach we believed would protect us somewhat from disappointment if the cycle failed again.

This cycle however went well and a date was set for February 2008 for the harvesting procedure. Again this involves an inter-vaginal ultrasound probe just this time with a retractable lance that is able to burst each follicle and extract the egg. At the time the IVF clinic was in a portacabins at Clane General Hospital and there was a small 3 bed-roomed ward next to the theatre which was connected via a hatch to the Embryology laboratory.

So my wife got gowned up and was sedated for the procedure as I waited on my own in the small ward. Eventually my wife was brought back into the ward in a wheelchair, bleeding and with tears running down her face and streaming down her neck. For me this was an extremely low point of my life. I felt extremely guilty because this was my fault, I was infertile not my wife. If I was functional she would not have needed to go through this.

So I’m sitting beside my wife who is upset and confused because of the sedation I’m trying to comfort her and then one of the IVF nurses called in to us to tell us the egg harvesting had been a success and that now it was “my turn”. I was handed a small sample container and had to go into a room I had nicknamed “the milking parlour” to have the most important wank of my life. If you pardon my porn reference this was the “money shot”, I had to produce and my aim had to be impeccable.

Once I provided the sample it was handed over immediately to the embryologist and he went and worked his scientific magic of ICSI. IVF is now a very well understood procedure but many people are a bit horrified when they realise the scientific & medical technology was adapted from the livestock industry.

So I believe that 18 eggs were harvested and treated with ICSI. This resulted in 15 successfully fertilised eggs. We opted for a service that matured the zygotes a bit longer in the lab. While this was more expensive it also improved the odds of success when transferred.

I think it was 2 weeks later that we went back for the eggs to be transferred. To improve the chances of success Clane transferred 2 zygotes in what is a relatively straightforward procedure and then it was a waiting game for 2 weeks until the first blood test.

Those 2 weeks are a time of huge anticipation. Do you cheat and try a home pregnancy test or do you wait until the official, higher accuracy, blood pregnancy test. So we waited until the official test and you have to then wait for a phone call from the lab to give you the good or bad news. Like I said we had dampened down expectations but it was till nerve racking.

When the news came it was positive, we were going to be parents. Naturally we were overjoyed and we kicked into “nesting mode” and what turned out to be an uneventful and normal pregnancy.

Our first child,  was born in October 2009 and when I first set eyes on him I became very emotional. Tears came out of nowhere as I sobbed uncontrollably looking at this helpless little bundle swaddled in a hospital blanket, blinking and yawning and wondering where he was.

We still had some frozen embryos and so a year or so later we decided to try for another cycle. This time we chose to transfer only a single embryo as a year or so into being parents neither of us fancied the thoughts of being parents of twins. But again, we made the mistake of not contemplating failure, again we thought everything would work like it did the previous time. So cycle 3 was a failure but as well as that all along the different phases of harvesting, fertilisation, transfer, freezing and thawing there was an attrition rate and so after cycle 3 we only had 2 fertilised zygotes left.

Again, after a failed cycle my wife needed a number of months for her menstrual cycle to get back to normal before we could go for the 4th cycle attempt. We took the decision to transfer our last 2 remaining embryos taking the chance on twins rather than the expense of a further cycle. Like in the case of our first pregnancy only one embryo took and in May 2012 our second son was born.

Both boys are now in school with one in Junior Infants and the other in First Class of our local school. Both are healthy fun loving kind kids with a love of the outdoors and both have a curious mind and 99% of the time they are a pure joy to raise. The thought always fascinates me as to how would their personalities be different if they had been transferred in the opposite order. Technically they are twins being conceived on the same day but just born over 2 years apart.

IVF was an expensive undertaking and we spent many tens of thousands of euro. I am conscious of many of my Irish Army Air Corps colleagues with fertility difficulties remain childless because either the IVF technology was not mature enough at the time to deal with their level of infertility or because they simply could not afford the cost of the procedure.

I have no doubt that my fertility trouble stemmed from my working environment in the Irish Air Corps at Casement Aerodrome, Baldonnel. The working conditions were horrendous,  we had no chemical training whatsoever, we were issued with no PPE whatsoever and the buildings that housed the chemicals I worked with were asbestos clad brick sheds built by the British in 1915-1918 and were unfit for purpose as they had utterly inadequate ventilation.

Chemicals we worked with in Baldonnel were exceptionally dangerous and were listed as Carcinogens, Mutagens and Teratogens and a number of chemicals in daily use were reproductive toxins and warned of harm to fertility as well as the capacity to cause heritable genetic harm.

My wife and I are definitely one of the luckier couples from Baldonnel, many couples have not been able to have children and will move into an old age that will be lonelier as a result. It is one thing if you don’t want a family but to want a family and be denied it because your employer didn’t give a damn about Health & Safety is galling.

Worse still I believe are the serving and former personnel who have managed to have children but whose children have suffered serious physical & mental disabilities due to their parents unprotected chemical exposure during their service in the Irish Army Air Corps. Many of these chemicals have the capacity not only to harm sperm, eggs and the developing child but also to harm the male &  female reproductive organs increasing the chance of disabled children long after leaving the service.

Infertility is common and on the increase but the levels of infertility or fertility difficulties experienced by male personnel in the most chemically contaminated workshops in Baldonnel appears anecdotally to be as high as 50%.

This is another health effect of the chemical Health & Safety failings that needs full investigation by competent medical & scientific bodies.

Dáil Éireann Written Answers 15/01/19 – Irish Air Corps – State Claims Agency

Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats)

QUESTION NO: 133

To ask the Taoiseach and Minister for Defence the health and safety management system reports and or audits carried out on the Air Corps by the State Claims Agency in each of the years 2006 to 2015; the year and author of each report and or audit in the timeframe; if the reports have been published and or classified as confidential; and if he will make a statement on the matter. 1180/19

Paul Kehoe (Wexford, Fine Gael)

I am advised by the State Claims Agency that it has a statutory remit under the National Treasury Management Agency (Amendment) Act 2000 to provide risk management advices to Delegated State Authorities. Such risk management advices include the provision of Health & Safety Management System audits, inspections and reviews.

From this, State Claims Agency conducted a number of Health & Safety Management System Defence Forces audits within the Air Corps between the years 2006 – 2015. The Reports are authored by the State Claims Agency and are confidential between the Agency and their Client.

*****

The State Claims Agency audited the Irish Air Corps for a decade before the Health & Safety Authority were forced to intervene and stop the ongoing CMR & toxic chemical exposure of the Baldonnel workforce.

The HSA file was opened in January 2016 and was only closed in September 2018 but the “superb” health and safety performance of the Air Corps for the decade prior to HSA intervention helped the State Claims Agency & NTMA staff earn discretionary performance-related payments.

DELAY – DENY – DIE

Dáil Éireann Written Answers 18/12/18 – Irish Air Corps – State Claims Agency Audits

Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats)

QUESTION NO: 119

To ask the Taoiseach and Minister for Defence if the State Claims Agency supplied the Health and Safety Authority with copies of its audits and or reports regarding the Air Corps; and if he will make a statement on the matter. 53026/18

Paul Kehoe (Wexford, Fine Gael)

I have been advised by the State Claims Agency that it does not provide reports of Health and Safety Management System Audits conducted by the Agency in Delegated State Authorities (including the Defence Forces) to the Health and Safety Authority. I am advised that these are provided to the Delegated State Authorities only.

With regard to the Air Corps, the Deputy will be aware that the Health and Safety Authority (HSA), following a number of inspections in 2016, issued a Report of Inspection to the Air Corps on the 21st October 2016, listing a number of matters requiring attention which included the areas of risk assessment.

The Air Corps as a consequence of this HSA report have implemented an improvement plan which is being conducted over eight phases. Seven of the eight phases have now been fully completed. The final phase is a continuous on-going process. The implementation plan focuses on a number of areas, including risk assessment.

I wish to assure the Deputy that the health and welfare of the Defence Forces personnel is a high priority for me and the military authorities.

*****

For 10 years BEFORE the Heath & Safety Authority were forced to investigate the Irish Air Corps, due to the ongoing safety risks to personnel, the State Claims Agency had been carrying out Health & Safety Risk Management System audits at Baldonnel. 

In the eyes of the State Claims Agency the Irish Air Corps risk profile was continuously improving whilst personnel on the ground were still being exposed to toxic & CMR chemicals without appropriate PPE or training causing lifelong injures to themselves and their children. 

It is now obvious that the State Claims Agency audits were incompetent  especially considering it took the Health & Safety Authority 2 years and 9 months to close their investigation file on the Irish Air Corps.

The State Claims Agency audits need to be released to the Oireachtas without delay.

DELAY – DENY – DIE

Dáil Éireann Written Answers 18/12/18 – Irish Air Corps – Legal Cases

Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats)

QUESTION NO: 117

To ask the Taoiseach and Minister for Defence the number of open cases the State Claims Agency is handling in respect of the Air Corps, its staff and former staff; and if he will make a statement on the matter. 53027/18

Paul Kehoe (Wexford, Fine Gael)

I am advised by the State Claims Agency that their reports indicate that currently the Agency is managing 21 active compensation claims in respect of the Air Corps where it is alleged that a staff member is the injured party.

Given that litigation is on-going, the Deputy will appreciate that it would be inappropriate for me to comment further in relation to these claims.

*****

Considering the limited media coverage of this scandal to date, this figure can only be expected to climb as serving & former personnel become aware that their ongoing health issues are likely a result of unprotected toxic chemical exposure whilst serving in the Irish Air Corps.

DELAY – DENY – DIE