Mr. John O'Mahony:

We are pleased to appear before the committee as representatives of the Irish Coast Guard Volunteers Representative Association, ICGVRA, and we thank the committee for its invitation.

Last October, a member of this committee commented that the initialism ICGVRA did not roll off the tongue. We agree but it describes who we are, what we do and our role. Our association was set up during 2021 and was officially launched in Kilkee, County Clare. The establishment of our representative association was the result of many discussions between Irish Coast Guard volunteers over the preceding months. During those discussions, we concluded that there was a profound lack of support for Irish Coast Guard volunteers who were in dispute with the management and that a volunteers representation body within the ICG structure was lacking. We set about putting our association together to represent any and every volunteer in a situation of conflict or grievance but also to co-operate with management to establish a better working environment for the volunteers.

We launched our association publicly in Kilkee, County Clare. Kilkee is the place where we Coast Guard volunteers lost one of our own in August 2016, which will be six years ago this coming August. We remember Caitríona Lucas here today as we remember those who died in Rescue 116 at Black Rock, County Mayo, and in Rescue 112 many years before in the dunes in County Waterford. Today, we will present our view on several issues that concern us.

The first has regard to the Coast Guard code of conduct. The Coast Guard code of conduct outlines the way that any complaint or interpersonal issue that may arise during training or on a search and rescue operation is to be resolved. Unfortunately, in many cases, it is used against the volunteer, with many being threatened with disciplinary action or dismissal. The process of dealing with volunteers’ complaints does not reflect the pathway described in the Coast Guard code. It often results in despair and the destruction of great volunteers. The Coast Guard code does not mention anywhere the circumstances in which a volunteer is entitled to any representation whatsoever other than that a fellow volunteer may accompany another at a disciplinary hearing or meeting, although only as a witness.

The second issue I will raise relates to the Coastal Unit Advisory Group, CUAG. From the minutes of CUAG meetings going back as far as 2012 circulated by management, some alarming facts are evident regarding the interactions both between Irish Coast Guard management and CUAG and between CUAG and Coast Guard volunteers. There are some serious issues with the way CUAG was formed to start with but, critically, CUAG has thereafter been controlled and managed by Irish Coast Guard management. CUAG officers are elected at the annual officers in charge, OICs, conference so only OICs can nominate and elect members to CUAG. The suggestion made to the committee in November 2021, when Irish Coast Guard management came before it, that CUAG members are elected by the volunteers is therefore untrue. At that hearing, it was stated that CUAG can advocate on behalf of a volunteer. The CUAG terms of reference do not allow a CUAG member to represent a volunteer in disciplinary matters, hence the formation of our association to fulfil this role. We understand that there are currently volunteers who are not OICs on CUAG but we have not seen any change in its operation and we do not know how these volunteers are selected.

We would like to discuss two of the many reports carried out over many years that have affected many Coast Guard volunteers: the Fisher report and the Mulvey report. In summary, there are many concerns raised by volunteers on Irish Coast Guard management and the functioning of Irish Coast Guard structures. We thank the Chairman, the committee and our own supporters and families, who have helped us get here today. Several people, who I am not going to mention, have assisted us and they are very important to us. We got a lot of assistance from the press in the early days, when nobody wanted to know who we were. International maritime lawyer, Michael Kingston, assisted us in getting our association legally registered. We thank him for that. I will conclude by declaring that we will answer members' questions factually and honestly.