Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 24 October 2012

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport and Communications

Review of Irish Coast Guard Service: Discussion

2:10 pm

Photo of Mark DalyMark Daly (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I pay tribute to the volunteers in the Irish Coast Guard, as well as those working on the front line in Malin, Valentia and Dublin. The Department hired the consultancy firm to prepare the report and believed it to be competent. Many members have spoken on the report.

I refer to the draft and what it stated about senior management. Was the assistant secretary of the Department aware of how parts were taken from the first draft, with the final draft presented to the Minister excluding those comments? The final draft only has one paragraph, which has been neutered, in reference to senior management. The first draft of the report was not presented to the Minister. It stated:

[There is a] very strong perception that the organisation lacks a sense of strategic direction and purpose. A common observation among both external and internal stakeholders is that this apparent lack of direction was due in part to the directors' time commitments to external issues other than to the State.

It also states:

There is a sense at middle management level that the organisation lacks strategic direction. In the unlikely event, one hopes, of a major maritime emergency, a somewhat torrid relationship between the Irish Coast Guard and the Marine Survey Office is a significant cause of concern since this might impact on successful resolution of the incident.

There were further concerns that the Irish Coast Guard does not appear to have a clearly defined role and if it does, it does not stick to it. The report indicated that the Irish Coast Guard is perceived as being all things to all men.

On page 34 of the report, it is stated:

Thus while Irish Coast Guard provides a well regarded search and rescue, Irish Coast Guard as a whole is not regarded as well managed. With better management many people consider it could prove and provide more output and, with the same resources, improve efficiencies.

It is stated on page 45:

The relationship between the director of the Irish Coast Guard Service and the Marine Survey Office which are clearly key components of an end to end maritime safety borders on the destructive. At a personnel level it is not acceptable to employ senior managers who are unable to co-operate closely. At a corporate level more integration of the Irish Coast Guard and the Marine Survey Office would deliver a more efficient end to end maritime service.

These are some of the quotations from the first draft of 60 pages. There was a 19 page reply to the consultants, which used the most bizarre terminology. Some of the comments were like Facebook, coffee and water cooler chatter. Was the assistant secretary aware that all those comments were deleted from the first draft that was done by the consultants, and that this was the version that was given to the Minister?

The first draft outlined three options - three centres, two centres and one centre - and it gave the costs and benefits of all those without coming down on the side of any one. The final draft that went to the Minister, with all the comments about senior management from the first draft deleted after a 19 page response by senior management, recommends not retaining the three centre model. I cannot see that recommendation in the original draft that was manipulated subsequently by senior management.

It is bad enough that the Minister gets a report that is doctored by senior management, but it is more disturbing when it comes down to lies. Colleagues have outlined the reports that have been put forward to try to close Malin Head and Valentia Coast Guard stations. There was the PricewaterhouseCoopers report in 1998. The Deloitte & Touche report in 2002 went to the then Minister for Communications, Marine and Natural Resources, Deputy Dermot Ahern, who opted to retain Malin Head and Valentia Coast Guard stations. The Fearon report, which was scrutinised in this committee room in 2008, was an attempt to close Malin Head and Valentia Coast Guard stations. That report was entirely discredited inside this committee room. Lie after lie was included in a document that was given to a Minister. This report before us is another attempt by senior management to do the same again.

Even though the then Minister with responsibility in the area ordered that the equipment be purchased and installed in Malin Head and Valentia Coast Guard stations, it still has not been installed by 2012. There was another report in 2010 by Ahern & Associates that tried to delay the installation of the equipment. The choice was given to staff of either having the buildings upgraded or the equipment installed. Mr.Chris Reynolds sent an e-mail to all staff seeking their views on upgrading the building or installing new equipment. Although all staff opted to install the equipment, it is still sitting in Blanchardstown. The Fearon report of 2007 stated clearly that the equipment in Malin Head and Valentia Coast Guard stations was subject to catastrophic failure at any moment. Motorola had issued a death certificate on the equipment prior to 2007 and the officers were ordered by a Minister - a democratically elected Member of Parliament - to install the new equipment as a matter of urgency. Where is that equipment today? It is sitting in Blanchardstown while equipment that is liable to catastrophic failure is in Malin Head and Valentia Coast Guard stations.

The Fisher Associates report talks about the importance of Malin Head and Valentia Coast Guard stations to saving the lives of Spanish fisherman off our coast. Malin Head and Valentia are the only coast guard stations in Ireland, England. Scotland and Wales in which all the staff can speak Spanish to the fishermen in distress. So important is this ability that the Royal Air Force calls on Valentia time and again to co-ordinate with Spanish fishermen in distress. Mr. Reynolds stated in his rebuttal that it is maritime law for them to have a seaman on board who can speak English. That is a lot of good to a Spanish trawler that is 200 miles off Fastnet and does not have an English speaker on board. Would we quote him chapter and verse and say we do not have Spanish speakers here? Mr. Reynolds states in his rebuttal that this does not have currency. I believe that lives count. The Spanish fishermen are deserving of being saved and the fact we have this unique facility in Valentia that can co-ordinate rescues between our Coast Guard service, helicopters, the RAF helicopter and those Spanish trawlers in distress is very important because lives depend on it.

What I cannot understand is that we are four years on and the equipment is still sitting in boxes in Blanchardstown. It is impossible to understand how a person who is the head of a coast guard service that is dedicated to saving lives and who knows the existing equipment in Valentia and Malin Head Coast Guard stations is subject to such catastrophic failure has not authorised the installation of the replacement equipment. I do not think Mr. Chris Reynolds is fit to hold the office of director of the Irish Coast Guard, considering that, hourly, he is putting lives at risk.

Was Mr. Mullen aware of the original draft of the Fisher Associates report with all the criticisms of senior management? Did Mr. Mullen ask that these be removed and that the final report we have by a consultant hired by the Department be handed to the Minister?

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