Mr. Maurice Mullen:

I thank the Chairman and members for inviting me and my colleagues from the Irish Coast Guard to appear before the committee. We are pleased to be able to facilitate the committee in any way we can.

Two value for money reports were commissioned at the same time. The Department for Transport, Tourism and Sport commissioned these as part and parcel of the arrangements for the Croke Park agreement. The focus of both reports was on value for money. Both reports are on the Department's website and are available to the public. No decisions have been taken on the implementation of those recommendations. There is a process of review underway in the Department, where both reports and various recommendations from internal and external audits are being examined with the objective of producing an action plan to address a number of what we would regard as significant deficiencies that have been identified, for example our ability to respond to major pollution incidences, the need to strengthen coastal unit training and other related issues across the maritime safety field. We take both reports and the recommendations from audits as part of an integrated approach to developing and promoting greater safety and emergency response in the marine arena. We are not in a position to comment on the reports at present because we have not completed our work on them. We have not presented the Minister with formal recommendations to inform policy decisions. There is significant interest in the contentious issues but these are policies issues which ultimately must be the subject of a policy decision. We also recognise that whatever we do will require phased changes because we cannot at any stage fail to continue to provide the best service we can with the resources we have available. At the same time, we face difficulties. We are very stretched for resources and we have identified gaps.

Changes in the way in which these services can be delivered have been suggested by consultants. As part of the review of preparing the action plan, we are testing and analysing the services to see whether we think the recommendations stand up. The workload across the board, in the Coast Guard and in the Marine Survey Office, which is the regulatory end of the maritime safety regime, has increased enormously, and that is part of the dilemma we face. We have to make headway. We are the senior management for delivery service and we have to examine the various options. Part and parcel of the Croke Park agreement is to get better value for money, find new ways of dealing with issues, free up resources where we can for redeployment to address the service gaps and try to streamline where we can, all of which must be done in the context of maintaining safety and the priorities associated with it, based on good risk assessment and keeping that to the forefront.

The value for money review recommended that a different search and rescue co-ordination model should be adopted. It recommended moving to two rather than three stations and left it open as to exactly how the system should operate. Fisher Associates believes there are greater efficiencies to be had and that it is for management, therefore, to take that on board and see whether the Department agrees and can focus on getting more from there. In support of its case, the review refers to difficulties in running with the current services which include the fact that we are relying heavily on overtime to keep three stations in operation. It also believes there are operational issues and that, with a smaller number of stations, one gets more from people being together rather than being in disparate locations. It also knows there are different wider social factors that have to come into play and given that people are in place, there are human resource factors that have to be taken on board.

The Department is examining what is the best way to move forward and how it can better use technology that would, perhaps, give results. How does the Department deal with the HR issues and should it go with a model that calls for change? We have not decided that yet. I stress we have not gone back to the Minister at this time. We are keen to hear what people have to say and we know there is much debate yet to take place on these matters.