*Doolin Coast Guard.
TENSIONS have eased within Doolin Coast Guard with senior officials insisting they have no concerns on the atmosphere there while the Junior Minister responsible for the Coast Guard has yet to visit the Unit.
Doolin’s Coast Guard unit was stood down in November 2021 following the resignation of six volunteers between October 27th and 29th. The Mulvey report was published in December 2021, this recommended the Doolin unit be reconstituted and this occurred in the first quarter of 2022.
Independent mediator, Kieran Mulvey in his report recommended that members of the Doolin unit be permanently stood down. He wrote, “regretfully I have formed the conclusion that no form of mediation will lead to a resolution of the matters of disputation in the Unit”.
Regarded as one of the busiest coast guard units in the country, it covers the coastline along the Cliffs of Moher.
Two of the members had resigned over numerous unresolved issues with management at a national level before a further four members then tendered their resignations.
Speaking to The Clare Echo, Director of the Irish Coast Guard, Micheál O’Toole stated, “I’ve been a regular visitor to those units, I was in Kilkee and Doolin less than six weeks ago, I was very enthused by the level of morale, esprit de corps and teamwork that was evident so my perspective I have no concerns”.
O’Toole’s appointment was subsequent to concerns from former Doolin members over the management of the Coast Guard nationally. “As Director of the Coast Guard, we’re very proud of the nearly 1,000 volunteers across the coast, we’ve forty four units, our units here in Co Clare are Kilkee, Doolin and Killaloe are an extremely important part of that, they are vital units, they are on the board and active responding to incidents, the Doolin unit responded to a particularly nearly tragic incident at the Cliffs of Moher on Thursday morning which thankfully had a positive result, that is indicative and tangible evidence that these units are performing and doing what the Coast Guard wants in a safe and efficient manner, I want to recognise the contribution of those members from their communities, it is never an easy ask to volunteer in the emergency services, I want to recognise the vital contribution of the colleagues at Kilkee, Doolin and Killaloe”.
Minister of State at the Department of Transport with responsibility for international and road transport, logistics, rail and ports, Seán Canney (IND) has yet to visit the Doolin unit since his appointment at the beginning of January. “I have visited some of the coast guards, I will be visiting Doolin hopefully in the autumn and I have visited Kilkee, there is a vital service being provided by these people and maybe sometimes we don’t recognise that. When you have an island nation you have to have these services and people who are doing an awful lot of work behind the scenes which nobody knows about. I want to compliment everyone involved in search and rescue right across the country, there is a huge amount of volunteers involved which is something, I say thank you to each and every one of them for the work they do”.
He confirmed he had not looked into the past issues at Doolin before becoming Junior Minister. “I have had a look at it and I will be talking to my officials again about that. Progress has been made on all those things, it is important to say that when I visit these places we will have a chat”.
On the challenges in recruiting volunteers and staff to the Coast Guard, O’Toole explained, “Like every other emergency service there is always challenges in recruitment, particularly one that is predicated on volunteers, we do not take for granted the over 1,000 people which provide such a vital service to their communities and the nation, we’re quite comfortable and happy with the level of recruitment, there is a positive ethos within our Coast Guard but we are vigiltant, people are finding it more challenging to have that level of spare time, we want to support all our personnel both full-time and part-time and indeed volunteer in terms of what they do and ensure they are there to respond when called upon, it can be challenging but we feel we are moving in a very positive direction”.
