Mark Daly (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I am not sure about the answer to Senator Brian Ó Domhnaill’s question about the shed. My understanding is 22 medivacs involving Spanish speakers were done by Valentia and, obviously, the Royal Air Force has called on the station’s services many times.

Sometimes I am concerned about the information the assistant secretary receives. When the Fearon report, presented by a former assistant secretary, came before this committee, we dissected it paragraph by paragraph. It made assertions about the electricity supply to the Valentia station. The committee got the ESB to show the supply was up to standard. The Fearon report stated telecommunications at the site were not up to standard. All it would have taken to solve the problem in this regard was €22,000. Senior management knew that but it wanted to write down that telecommunications were not up to standard. The committee had to show the building at the site was the fourth largest Coast Guard station in Ireland, England, Scotland and Wales while the report criticised it. The report claimed there was no work for spouses of Coast Guard staff in the place when 11 of the 14 spouses of the staff based there were working locally. Education for staff children was not up to standard according to the Fearon report but 80% of pupils from Coláiste na Sceilge go on to third level education. The committee proved that all bar two of the staff wished to be based there. The predecessor of the Fisher report was full of lies and inaccuracies to follow an agenda.

It is bizarre that four years on there is still equipment sitting in Blanchardstown and there are spares. It could take a couple of hours to use those spares to fix a machine in Valentia. It would seem it does not really matter when someone’s life is at risk and the communications go down. That is inexcusable. It is the same as the Galley Head incident where the equipment was out of commission but not repaired for five months. Four years on, there is no urgency in installing life-saving communications equipment at Valentia. The death certificate had been issued by Motorola prior to 2007.

What I find most appalling is that the criticism of senior management was edited out. I would expect a balanced report to go to the Minister. If there were criticism of senior management by stakeholders, the Minister should get a more rounded view. This is worrying because this is really a case of “Yes, Minister” and we do not want the Minister knowing that senior management has been criticised. Four years on, the Department is still manipulating reports in order that the Minister will give the outcome it wants.

Where does the first draft of the Fisher Associates report state there should be only two stations? It states there are three options but it does not come down on the side of any one in the first draft. However, in the final draft, which we all know was manipulated, it comes down clearly on the side of the two-station proposal.