Irish Coast Guard search and rescue crews are obliged to work 24-hour shifts that are being recorded as only 16.5 hours under rules being applied that are putting lives at risk, the Dáil has heard.
Sinn Féin health spokesman David Cullinane claimed the safety of rescue crews is being compromised by shifts that breach European Union working time directives and European Court of Justice rulings.
“These crews carry out some of the most dangerous work in the State. They fly in atrocious weather at low altitude, often at night, often lifting people from cliffs or rough seas,” he said, having spoken to crews across the State and the Irish Airline Pilots’ Association.
“Fatigue in aviation is not a theoretical risk. It is a known killer,” he said. Pointing to the 2017 incident when four crew members died in the Rescue 116 crash, Mr Cullinane said it led to “hard-won safety recommendations”, including a strong focus on fatigue risk management.
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“It is simply unacceptable that in the years since, we are now seeing a system that appears designed to squeeze more 24-hours shifts out of crews who are already raising legitimate safety and fatigue concerns.”
He claimed the 24-hour shifts were being recorded as 16.5 hours “under Irish Aviation Authority (IAA) approvals” under a “factoring” system that normally only applies to standby and reserve crews.
He said crews must be prepared “to respond at any moment, often after a long day already, and be sometimes into a second or even a third mission. That is why the recording of time matters.”
Introducing a motion, Mr Cullinane called on the Minister for Transport Darragh O’Brien and the aviation authority to “urgently review” the system of recording working hours.
Minister of State Alan Dillon introduced a Government counter motion saying the new “fatigue risk management systems, and enhanced crew rest facilities, under the new contract, provide a step-change in ensuring continued search and rescue crew safety and wellbeing”.
Mr Dillon said issues around working hours and shift patterns “are entirely a matter for the Irish Aviation Authority”. He stressed that the Minister for Transport “does not have any regulatory oversight of the contracted service providers of the Irish Coast Guard aviation service”.
In 2023, the Department of Transport signed a 10-year contract with Bristow Ireland Ltd for the provision of the coast guard service.
Labour TD Ciarán Ahern said the previous contractor CHC allowed crew members to be on standby from their own home but Bristow does not. “Why the change and why has the IAA allowed it,” he asked.
He said “this appears to be very much a choice being made by the new operator and endorsed” by the aviation authority.
Mr Ahern, a former employment lawyer, said: “If a worker is required to be available, on-site or in a nearby hotel, alert and fully deployable for 24 hours straight, then why, on paper, are we pretending they are only working for 16.5 hours.”
These crews are “not in a standby context. They are not sleeping at home with a pager or whatever”. They are on base and “ready to take off at a few minutes’ notice, day or night”.
He pointed to an EU directive that “working time” means any period a crew member is “at the employer’s disposal” including on-call duty where they have to be physically present.
Mr Ahern claimed “it is about circumventing the annual limit of 2,000 working hours” and “fewer crew members are hired and those that are hired are being paid less per hour”.
He also pointed to recent European Court of Justice rulings, including a case brought by public health service doctors that “on-site standby time, including time spent sleeping, must be fully regarded as working time when physical presence at the workplace is required”.
Bristow has been contacted for comment.
