Search & rescue services cut in southeast

Sully

James Mccartan wrote: »

Help save Southeast 24 hour Search and Rescue Service

http://www.rinnasharksac.net/portal.htm

click on link

Mod Note:

What has the link got to do with the campaign? Not seeing anything sticking out only photographs and pop-up boxes...

Stop plugging the link all over this topic, please. Thats considered spamming and next time a ban will be issued.

Thanks.

Topic Cleaned

James Mccartan

Sully wrote: »

Mod Note:

What has the link got to do with the campaign? Not seeing anything sticking out only photographs and pop-up boxes...

Stop plugging the link all over this topic, please. Thats considered spamming and next time a ban will be issued.

Thanks.

Topic Cleaned

If you can not see an on line poll or information about how we plan to help save this important service you should go to specsavers .
We have had 14500 hits on our site in the last two weeks do not need to play games.

good bye
MR MOD

Sully

James Mccartan wrote: »

If you can not see an on line poll or information about how we plan to help save this important service you should go to specsavers .
We have had 14500 hits on our site in the last two weeks do not need to play games.

good bye
MR MOD

Goodbye.

Bodan

Dum_Dum wrote: »

Next is the withdrawal of funding for the airport extension:

http://www.munster-express.ie/business/no-funds-for-airport-runway-extension/

:mad: , the irony in the article is that they said "in the current financial climate, his priority would be safety and security related projects." You couldn't make it up.

Beeker

Have posted this topic on all the boards in the south and southeast but sad to say it has received very little response.:(

decies

Beeker wrote: »

Have posted this topic on all the boards in the south and southeast but sad to say it has received very little response.:(

No worries i think there is enough outrage in waterford with this.

Deise Tom

Trotter wrote: »

We owe it to the people of coastal areas in Wexford, Waterford and East Cork to do everything we can to overturn this utter tripe.

I've sent emails to our "TDs".. and anyone else I could think of up there.


Feel free to voice your concern..

brendan.kenneally@oireachtas.ie
john.deasy@oireachtas.ie
martin.cullen@oireachtas.ie
brian.oshea@oireachtas.ie
eamon.gilmore@oireachtas.ie
enda.kenny@finegael.ie
eamon.ryan@oireachtas.ie
Dan.Boyle@oireachtas.ie
john.gormley@oireachtas.ie
taoiseach@taoiseach.gov.ie
noel.dempsey@oireachtas.ie

Dont forget to contacts Tds in cork, South Tipp, Wexford, Kilkenny and Wexford as well.

Trotter

I hope to God this doesnt just fade away over the weekend.. We should be ashamed of ourselves if that's allowed to happen.

Bards

Cork & Wexford TD's are up in arms too

Covney was on WLRfm news at 5 giving out yards about how the S.E SAR is more busy than the Dublin based one, and saying he knew the lads personally haing being rescued by the SAR (Waterford Based) from a boat based only last year

Micky Dolenz

When I heard of it, my first thought was "How many lives won't be saved because of this decision"

and to think they paid the FAS head 1 million quid of our money to go is a disgrace. When do we stop taking their sh1te?

Trotter

For the record, I've had responses from Brian O'Shea, John Deasy, and Paudie Coffey.

I've heard nothing from Brendan Kenneally. Theres a shock.

Drummerboy08

More than half of Irelands freight which is Transported via ferry either lands into Rosslare, or Cork. To add to that, there are a lot of passenger services to the UK and France which all starts in the south east, plus your trawlers and pleasure craft. If an area had to be cut, the South east of the country is not where I'd be doing it.

Sure the Dublin helicopter is the one to cut, with the presence of Air Corps choppers in Baldonnell?

LookBehindYou

Drummerboy08 wrote: »

More than half of Irelands freight which is Transported via ferry either lands into Rosslare, or Cork. To add to that, there are a lot of passenger services to the UK and France which all starts in the south east, plus your trawlers and pleasure craft. If an area had to be cut, the South east of the country is not where I'd be doing it.

Sure the Dublin helicopter is the one to cut, with the presence of Air Corps choppers in Baldonnell?

Surely the money should have gone to the Air Corps in the 1st place, (500 million over a 10 year period) to run all the search and rescue operations nationwide. The money would stay in this country.

alpha2zulu

If anybody needs a reminder about the fantastic service that is at stake here, then check out this excellent video made by the Airport at 01:15min in particular.


www.youtube.com/watch?v=xiujqNVODrk

Drummerboy08

LookBehindYou wrote: »

Surely the money should have gone to the Air Corps in the 1st place, (500 million over a 10 year period) to run all the search and rescue operations nationwide. The money would stay in this country.

Maybe so, but there is no point in arguing that now.

Where is the nearest Air Corps helicopter based to Waterford/Cork/Wexford? I dont think it would be the same level of cover regardless of location.

Beeker

John Deasy replied to my e-mail and forwarded a copy of a letter he sent to the Dept of Transport. Letter printed below:

Mr. Tom O’Mahony
Secretary General
Department of Transport
44 Transport House
Kildare St.,
Dublin 2 March 16, 2010

Dear Mr. O’Mahony,

We are writing to request an immediate meeting with you regarding your Department’s proposal to downgrade within the next two years the Coastguard helicopter service based at Waterford Regional Airport, from a 24-hour service to a 12-hour daytime service.

We are concerned that your department has constructed a tendering process that will diminish and reduce vital safety procedures and services for the southeast and southern coast and are interested in ascertaining your rationale for doing so. The practical effect of what you are proposing will, in our opinion, endanger the lives of fishermen and others who may find themselves in emergency situations, particularly at sea. We are assuming that the Department’s reasons for potentially jeopardizing the lives of people who find themselves in emergency situations are absolutely clear and we are interested in better understanding those same reasons. We believe you and your Department officials must clearly justify this course of action which in our opinion may cause the loss of life.

The fact that the southeast helicopter search and rescue service had its busiest year ever last year with 115 callouts also concerns us and we are interested to learn the callout figures for every other search and rescue service around the country. The relevant figures for every search and rescue base for the past 10 years would be helpful for us to determine how your department came to devise its tendering process and pursue its existing proposal.

Your department has indicated that the downgrading of the 24-hour search and rescue service based in the southeast could realize savings of almost €1million. We would appreciate if you could outline and itemize how that saving will be achieved and whether your department attempted to find those savings elsewhere within the overall Coastguard budget. We are also interested in how your department intends allocating the entire budget of €50 million per annum for Coastguard services around the country.

We are interested in discussing all the vital statistics and evidence you used to make this decision. For example, we would like to see figures related to ship and boat movements in the south and southeast regions relative to all other parts of the country.

As you will be aware the southeast helicopter search and rescue service is based in a region where there are three major shipping ports, Waterford, Cork and Rosslare, with new ferry services from Cork and substantial existing ferry services from Rosslare. We understand that one of the reasons given for maintaining the Dublin search and rescue service as a 24-hour service is the level of commercial shipping traffic at Dublin Port. Perhaps your department could explain why this doesn’t seem to be a factor in the case of the service based in the southeast? This is a particular source of interest to us as there have reports that the callout rate for the Dublin search and rescue service is less than that of the search and rescue service based in Waterford.

These are just some of the questions we would like to ask when we meet with you. We would also appreciate the attendance of senior representatives of the Irish Coastguard Service at the meeting. Thank you for your assistance with this matter and we look forward to hearing from you.

Sincerely,

John Deasy T.D.

Deirdre Clune T.D.

Simon Coveney T.D.

Michael D’arcy T.D.

Paul Kehoe T.D.

Jim O’ Keeffe T.D.

P.J. Sheehan T.D.

David Stanton T.D.

Bernard Allen T.D.

JohnC.

Nice to see some movement on this.

Beeker

Kahless wrote: »

Nice to see some movement on this.

Sure is but lets hope that movement keeps going. It's all to easy to give up and move on to other issues.
Shame on us as a society if we allow this to happen:mad:

Trotter

Anyone fancy a trip to Knocktopher where the man himself will open the road?
I'd love to go but time off work isnt an option for me. I just spotted the group on Facebook and it'd be great to see a crowd make the point to the Minister that he's stepped over the line.

M9 Motorway Opening, Knocktopher, Co. Kilkenny

Trotter

http://www.download.greenparty.ie/Convention_2010/Convention%20Booklet2010web.pdf

Looks like all of the Greens are coming to town. Now theres an opportunity to show our distaste at life threatening decisions by this government. Let them have their chat in Waterford, but lets hope they carry a clear message about our Search and Rescue service back to government.

And if they would like to see our beautiful beaches and coastline, I suggest they do so before 5:30pm so we can all get used to not having proper emergency cover.

By the way, the Green spokesperson on Marine and Transport is Ciaran Cuffe. He's due to speak at that conference.

Here's his email address

Ciaran.Cuffe@oireachtas.ie

Let him know how you feel!

Beeker

Trotter wrote: »

By the way, the Green spokesperson on Marine and Transport is Ciaran Cuffe. He's due to speak at that conference.

Here's his email address

Ciaran.Cuffe@oireachtas.ie

Let him know how you feel!

Done

Beeker

The lads have just left the airport now on another rescue to the Galty mountains. This service is needed for the whole region not just here in Waterford.

Deise Tom

I was onto all FF Td's in Waterford, Wexford, South Tipperary, Kilkenny, Cork East, Cork South Central and Cork South West and have got an assurance that the issue will the reduced service at Waterford Regional Airport will be taken up with Noel Dempsey and he will be asked to keep a 24 hour service in the South East.

tfitzgerald

the money for maori harneys junkets sorry vip buisness trips has to come from somewhere

which?

As someone who only lately observed the Search and Rescue service performing a mountain rescue, I am in awe of their dedication, skill and proficiency. It's one thing to require this service on the side of a mountain where survival rates are practically 100%, but what are the chances of someone surviving overnight in water?
I am shocked and appalled by this decision, and for the relatively miniscule savings!!! Where will this government stop? Is money really more important than saving lives? Spread the word, bring it to everyone's attention, this can only be prevented by a large public outcry - and where better to start it only on boards.ie

baronflyguy

Slightly off topic but following on from previous posting about spreading the word, I came across this youtube yesterday which I thought was very well made about the power of the internet.

Trotter

Here's our next port of call ladies and gentlemen... I'm not sure we're getting enough/any mention on the RTE news.

Time to remind them that this is major news.

newsdesk@rte.ie

Deise Tom

Trotter wrote: »

Here's our next port of call ladies and gentlemen... I'm not sure we're getting enough/any mention on the RTE news.

Time to remind them that this is major news.

newsdesk@rte.ie

Full marks to WLR for giving the face book campaign a mention all day. How are the other stations in the south east doing. Are they backing the helicopter to be available 24 hours a day or do they give a shyte.

Trotter

Good to see the public meeting being set up. Amazing too to see how many people have added their names to the facebook group and the petition.

RobitTV

Search for man missing off Cork coast

ANOTHER LIFE COULD BE SAVED BECAUSE OF THE SOUTH-EAST COAST GUARD HELICOPTER SERVICE

---

A search is under way for a man missing off the coast of west Cork.
He was one of two men who went into the water while fishing near the Kedge Rocks in Baltimore.
The second man raised the alarm at around 8am this morning... The Coast The Coast guard helicopter is involved