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Seanad Transcripts 27th February 2008
Valentia

Senator Mark Daly: Information Zoom  I welcome the Minister of State to speak on the Valentia Island marine rescue centre. I, too, honour the presence of the Ambassador of Spain, Dr. Jose de Carvajal, in the House today. He is here because the Valentia Island marine rescue centre is the only one in Ireland, England, Scotland, Wales or France that can communicate with Spanish-speaking sailors when their vessels are in difficulty. That is why the Ambassador is in the House today. He is here because the Valentia Island marine rescue centre is the only one in Ireland, England, Scotland, Wales or France that can communicate with Spanish-speaking sailors when their vessels are in difficulty. That is why the Ambassador is in the House today.

The 2002 Deloitte & Touche report made several recommendations for the new locations for marine rescue centres. The Minister responsible at the time, Deputy Dermot Ahern, agreed to expand Malin and Valentia. That report, recommendation and order were not acted upon for many years until a new Minister came into office. We are being told that the Valentia Island centre is not being closed. It is being wound down through natural wastage as men retire. Eventually only the noise of machines will be heard there. The staff will be centralised in urban locations on the east and west coasts.

The 16 page report issued last year to close the centres is full of lies and deception. The first lie is: “At present about half of the staff do not live in either home MRSC county.” There are 14 staff in Valentia, 11 of whom live in County Kerry. The second lie is: “New staff require access to schools, shopping and leisure facilities and employment for partners.” Of the 11 members of staff who live in County Kerry, ten of their spouses are in employment. Coláiste na Sceilige, the secondary school in Cahirciveen, sends 80% of its leaving certificate class to third level education. One cannot get better facilities.

The third lie concerns the electricity supply to which my colleague, Senator Coghlan referred. Tadhg O’Donoghue, former head of ESB, said that outages on the island should be no more nor less than in any other part of the country. His mother lives on Valentia Island and he is from the island.

Senator Joe O’Toole: Information Zoom  I think the Senator will be voting with us. He is saying all the right things.

Senator Mark Daly: Information Zoom  Inside this document is another report from the Irish Coast Guard. If it is anything like a previous report in which the Coast Guard service supplied information we can be sure it will not be very accurate. In the report it is submitting to the Minister it has dropped the issue of the location of staff but continues to discuss infrastructure. Transmission Links Ireland, which has upgraded all the infrastructure for the electricity service in County Kerry, wrote a letter on 21 February 2008 refuting the assertion that electricity supply networks in the area are inadequate. We will investigate the statements of the Irish Coast Guard. These facts will go to south Kerry and Tadhg O’Donoghue who will respond to the contents of this report.

Since the 2002 Deloitte & Touche report was published 99% of the infrastructure for electricity in south Kerry has been upgraded and is better than it was at the time of the report. The gas thing about the report is that it contains the statement: “with modern equipment it would be possible to run the marine rescue coordination centre from one location anywhere in the country”. I know Valentia is an island and Malin is a long a way from Dublin but they are “anywhere in the country”. The report, however, states that the centre cannot be located in Valentia or Malin.

The fourth lie concerns the communications infrastructure. Tim Brosnan of Eircom said on 6 November 2007 that because of Eircom’s alternative routing policy there is durability within the system for the location in Valentia. There is, however, a gap — the last four miles which are badly served. Four dishes, two in Valentia and two at the Eircom station in Cahirciveen, could bridge that gap at a cost of €28,000. Senior management in the Irish Coast Guard can report that Valentia is not up to standard because of that gap. They have left a gap in the system so that they can recommend closing Valentia in the report. They are putting lives at risk when it would take only €28,000 to fix. It is a dereliction of their duty not to have bridged the gap knowing it is there.

Fexco is a world-class service centre for the likes of Western Union and other multinational companies that rely on communication. It employs more than 100 in Cahirciveen, relying on resilient broadband. The man in charge of its communication systems told me that the company would not have located there if it did not believe in the system. It does believe in the system and is going to expand, yet there is talk of closure.

The fifth lie states that: “locating the centres at either Valentia or Malin would require major construction work.” That is in the information given to the Minister of State today. I cannot speak about Malin but I have been inside the control room of Valentia Island Coast Guard station. It is huge. When the Dublin centre operated out of Valentia owing to reconstruction work in Dublin, it was able to run the entire east and west coast from that room, yet now the Coast Guard says that is not possible and the centre must be expanded. It does not need expansion because the big consoles will be taken out and touch screens installed, yet they continue reporting that the building facilities in Valentia are not up to standard.

If Valentia and Malin stations close, the service will lose experienced staff. Dublin deals with most of the Coast Guard traffic. What lay people call mayday distress calls, the Coast Guard calls urgency broadcasts. There were 258 mayday calls last year of which Malin dealt with 41, Dublin 52 and Valentia 165. Those guys will be put out to grass. The Coast Guard will hire new, young, fresh-faced fellows with no experience. They will not be able to speak Spanish.

When coastguard stations in the United Kingdom were closed between 1998 and 2002, deaths at sea increased by 28.1% because experienced staff were sent out to pasture. Inexperienced staff in Belfast caused a death in Lough Rinn because in the stress of an emergency they inputted the wrong co-ordinates and the helicopter arrived at the wrong place. The loss of experienced staff will entail the loss of Spanish speakers in the Irish Coast Guard and marine rescue services and Spanish lives will be put at risk.

When the staff in Valentia asked for Spanish tapes to improve their Spanish, senior management told them it was the responsibility of the captain of the ship to have an English speaker on board. That is not much good to a Spanish trawler going down in high seas off the west coast. The staff got their own tapes and can speak Spanish but not because of senior management in the Irish Coast Guard service.

Senior management in the Irish Coast Guard supplied the information that has led to the threatened closure of Valentia and Malin. They have lied about the number of staff living in County Kerry and the employment available for partners in the area. They have lied about the electricity supply and the telecommunications within the system. There is an agenda at senior management level at the heart of this report that threatens the closure of Valentia and Malin as marine rescue centres. Those who supplied the false and misleading information are not public servants but are self-serving public officials.