Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Wednesday, 30 January 2019
Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport
Role of Irish Coast Guard: Discussion
Mr. Eugene Clonan:
What is not there is the training. What the committee has in that figure entails the helicopters, four bases and different crews, as they are all on rosters. There are 37 or so pilots, approximately 40 crew members, engineers and a whole support structure behind the service. To maintain the helicopters, the service must maintain spares and so on. When the helicopter is on the ground, it requires maintenance. There are scheduled maintenance periods. If issues arise, people stand in.
We fly approximately 30 hours per month per base to keep the crews trained, that is, to keep their competencies up. The helicopters are flying to maintain their competencies. The missions are on top of all of that.
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