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NEW STATS FROM the Irish Coast Guard show call-outs increased by over a third between January and October, compared to the same period last year.
Rescue crews around the country responded to a total of 2,343 incidents, and there was a significant spike in activity during the July heatwave.
Increases were recorded across all of the various leisure-related categories: the service responded to 48 incidents involving canoeists (up 66 per cent), 64 involving swimmers (a rise of 36 per cent), and 291 cases involving sunbathers and other ‘persons engaged in shoreline activities’ (up 39 per cent).
In addition, crews were dispatched to help 253 sailing yachts and dingies (up 14 per cent), 221 powered pleasure craft (+11 per cent) and 36 angling craft (+29 per cent).
Speaking to TheJournal.ie, Coast Guard Operations Manager Declan Geoghegan also noted a significant surge in call-outs involving jet-skis, including those involved in ‘nuisance activities’. There was a 179 per cent increase in the category — representing 25 incidents.
“There would have been a significant number of responses to jetskiers, including those harassing swimmers, around Howth, Seapoint and Greystones,” Geoghegan said.
However Geoghegan noted that in such cases, those in control of the pleasure-craft may not have been harassing bathers intentionally.
He said the replacement of the service’s helicopter fleet with state-of-the-art new Sikorsky S-92s had greatly increased their ability to respond to developing incidents.
Built to specifications set out by the Irish Coast Guard, the first of the craft came into service last year as part of a €500 million fleet replacement programme, and delivery of the final helicopter is expected before the end of 2013.
The updated fleet, based at Dublin, Shannon, Sligo and Waterford, will provides crews with faster on-scene times, faster patient recovery times and greater year-round capacity.
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Our un sung heroes !! Fair play to you guys and the fantastic job you do .
Did the skangers heading to
portmarnock have anything to do with it
Whoa guys don’t loose the run of yourself these guys get extremely well paid
Go on… what’s the rate for each role? Please.
Voluntary crews on the front line
These guys do a tremendous job.
Well done.
Let’s get this into a bit of context. There are lots of branches to the Coast Guard and all do great work. There is the volunteer element and the paid commercial element. The state has paid 500million to a private commercial company, CHC, to conduct the helicopter coastguard element. This little fact is not reported or mentioned too often. This is criminal as the service could have been continued to be done by the military just like our UK neighbors. Who pilots, crews and maintains these helicopters? ex military person ell for the most part. In 10 years time CHC will fly away with lovely 8-10 yr old helicopters and a massive profit for doing a service that could have be done indigenously with a fraction of that investment. It’s an extremely important service which needs to be done but could have been completed at at much better cost to you and me.
The military are too busy guarding cash in transit vans
CHC, bond, bistow etc all have the comparative advantage in running helicopters.
The uk is moving away from using state assets like the armed forces sea king helo’s BECAUSE ITS CHEAPER.
In fact anytime a service gets outsourced it’s usually for cost/comparative advantage.
The UK has now gone private on this also, the RAF will only be used for backup. The Air Corps have a fisheries duty, this is the protection of our own fleet from poachers but they will take part in rescues if the need arises. They also track smuggling etc and in the past have had to break off operations because some eejit in a dinghy has managed to get themselves in trouble. Also, they can be restricted on the kinds of aircraft they can buy, a problem that the private supplier doesn’t have to worry about. (remember the Black Hawk vs Eurocopter thing a few years back).
The men and women who operate our helicopter rescue services do an amazing job, I saw them last January during a gale force wind, searching the Shannon for a young woman. It was awesome to watch them work in such conditions. If we had a system of honouring our citizens like knighthoods, I would want them to be first in line.
If it were cheaper that’s one thing, but pilots crew maintenance crews hangerage etc. would be cost neutral with the military. That’s just a fact. So after all that, your telling me it would cost 50million to run per year for 10yrs?. Sorry your economics just don’t stack up. It was a terrible political decision based on different budgets and tiny empires. Funny thing is all the budgets are paid for by Ireland inc, me and you and that means less hospital staff, special needs etc. I don’t need to expand this logic any further do I?
Unfortunately the air corps and the government have no interest in providing this service. Remember there would have to be a signifigant investment in 6 helicopters based in 4 different locations plus the logistics and maitanince required to man the 4 locations. As someone already said the uk is also moving away from military SAR. Lets not forget one of the main reasons the air corps stopped SAR…
SAFETY! The military doesnt do safety in the same way civic aviation does…
500million euro buys a LOT of safety. Economics not emotions should prevail.
What’s better for the tax payer?
The air corps were invited to bid for the tender but decided not to do so.
The Air Corps does not have the final call on such decisons;- it is for the Minsiter and the Government!
A huge Thank You to these people who give so willingly of their time & expertise.
We have had heat waves before without such surges, so the figures as presented must be carefully analysed beyond the senstaional headlines!
The RNLI are at this business a lot longer than the Coast Guard and so their perspective may be useful to hear. From my own observations during the last summer there was a lot of duplication of taskings which may not have been previously undertaken. Coastguard units were frequently tasked in addition to the RNLI where previously it was just the the RNLI and they were only used where absolutely necessary.
Definitions of calltouts/taskings/emergencies/support/precautionary delpoyment must be included and seperated in the figures. The Coastguard nowadays undertake “patrols” (even though they have no authority in this area) and very often on such patrols they come across matters that they report as incidents but previously would never have been a notable event at all!
We must also take into account that Coastgurad units are being deployed for non maritime events now-a-days and Coastguard helicopters are being used more often;- including for non martime events.
For all these reasons, the headline figures need closer examination. Are more people using the water than ever before, if not are those that are using it getting more careless or is it just simply that additional factors are being used/reported now that were not before?
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