Irish Examiner view: Water safety imperative these months

Lack of lifeguards

Large crowds of people enjoy the beach and hot weather at Burrow Beach in Dublin. Picture: Sasko Lazarov/RollingNews.ie

As we continue to swelter in the heat and rejoice in the early summer sun, the news that a number of local authorities are having difficulty recruiting sufficient numbers of lifeguards to patrol our beaches is concerning. 

At a time when domestic tourism is rebounding significantly, it is bad enough that lifeguards are only fully employed in July and August, but with people flocking to our beaches in the heatwave now, a shortage of qualified lifeguards is posing obvious problems.