Coastguard equipment liable to fail

THE Department of Transport was warned in 2007 that communications equipment used by Valentia coastguard was in urgent need of replacement and any delay in doing this could lead to “catastrophic failure”.

The warning was ignored and the old equipment is still in use in Kerry, putting lives at sea at risk.

At least €1.5 million of replacement equipment was purchased by the department in 2009 but this has never been put to use in Valentia or Malin stations and is lying idle in boxes at a coastguard facility in Blanchardstown, Co Dublin.

In 2007, the Irish Coastguard was supplied with what is known in the industry as a death certificate, warning that these communications systems were obsolete and could fail at any moment.

And local marine sources confirmed the equipment on Valentia Island, up to 20 years old, has “on a number of occasions failed”.

Senator Mark Daly described the Department of Transport as highly negligent for its “failure to speedily replace the equipment, knowing as they do that it is obsolete”.

He also fears the new equipment’s warranty is in danger of running out and that it will cost the taxpayer thousands of euro every month next year to retain this warranty.

Last night, a Department of Transport spokeswoman said Valentia coastguard station should receive delivery of the new integrated communication system next year — five years after the initial warning was made.

The department said delays had occurred as they had “to convert the three centres to the new technology one at a time, in order to retain the necessary back-up at all times”.

Valentia is the co-ordination centre for search and rescue operations along the south and west coasts, and every year attends to hundreds of boats.

Valentia and Malin coastguard stations were in danger of closure in recent years, with the Department of Transport seeking to replace them with a centre on the west coast, possibly in Shannon or Ennis.

The department argued, in the wake of the Feron report in 2007, that the existing southern and northern coastguard centres were costing too much to run.

However, after fierce local opposition, the then minister for state at the department, Noel Ahern, confirmed in 2008 that existing marine rescue co-ordination services, with the main centre in Dublin and two sub-centres at Valentia and Malin, would continue.