Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Thursday, 18 November 2021

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport

Irish Coast Guard: Discussion

Ms Deirdre O'Keeffe:

On the ICGVRA, as I mentioned in my opening remarks, Coast Guard volunteers have a representative organisation, namely, the Coastal Unit Advisory Group, CUAG. This has been in place for 20 years or so, but in 2018, at the request of Coast Guard volunteers, the terms of reference were reviewed to enable better representation for all the volunteers and the Irish Coast Guard. There are elected members of the volunteer organisation on that committee now, as well as local management. That organisation has been in place for some time. As I understand it, the Minister of State's office has been in touch with the organisation the Deputy mentioned. The Minister of State has renewed her commitment to keep in touch with all of the volunteers.

There are a range of other ways in which the volunteers can have their issues, whether positive or negative, reflected to local management and to management more generally in head office. In response to something Deputy Crowe mentioned at the beginning of his intervention, I might ask Mr. Clonan to give some sense of how the organisation is organised at local level right around the coast because it is important to say that there is representation right around the coast. The organisation has a range of procedures whereby Coast Guard volunteers can have their views, whether positive or negative, reflected to management, whether it is their local management or management more generally. This is because we are concerned to ensure that any comments, whether positive or negative, are reflected and can be dealt with in the best possible way.

What was the second question?

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