The Minister for the Marine and Natural Resources, Dr Woods, has accepted recommendations by the National Safety Council (NSC) that his Department should assume responsibility for water safety on inland rivers and lakes, and says a comprehensive national search and rescue network will be in place by 1999.
Currently, responsibility rests with the Garda Siochana. The Irish Marine Emergency Service (IMES), which has jurisdiction over the coastline, should extend its search and rescue cover to inland waterways, the NSC says.
The Minister stressed that any inland search and rescue system would make use of existing resources and would involve local and statutory bodies. He said he had instructed senior officials in his department and with IMES to follow up on the recommendations published by the NSC yesterday in Dublin.
As reported in yesterday's Irish Times, the NSC has said the current rescue structure is too weak to cope with the upsurge in interest in the inland waterways. IMES, which is due to be transformed into a coastguard under new legislation, is already "among the best in the world", and a person running into difficulty in the water has a better chance of being rescued off the coastline than in a river or lake.
"It is a matter of concern that the same standard of rescue facilities does not apply to our inland waters," the NSC says. It says a rescue service for the Shannon system is particularly important and long overdue.
"This is a logical extension, as we already have the communications systems and helicopter cover," the Minister said yesterday, and extra funding would be "a matter for consideration when I receive the proposals". IMES does respond to inland call-outs, such as mountain rescue, but the NSC recommends that search and rescue on the extensive inland waterway system be given equal status to coastal work. It urges that the current maritime VHF service be extended to inland waters, with monitoring by one of the existing coast radio stations in Dublin, Valentia or Malin.
It says the four helicopters currently deployed for coastal rescue - two medium-lift at Dublin and Shannon, and two Air Corps Dauphin at Finner, Co Donegal, and Waterford - should respond to inland incidents as an equal, rather than secondary, priority.
It recommends that local authority defence units be given a supporting role in shore rescues, and says community inshore rescue services should be established at specific locations, similar to those around the coast. VAT relief on equipment should be considered, to encourage this. The Government should not wait for a major incident to occur before taking action to remedy weaknesses, it says.
