Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The lives of Dara Fitzpatrick, Mark Duffy, Ciarán Smith and Paul Ormsby are forever in the hearts of the people of Erris and Mayo. Their families are also in our hearts and thoughts constantly, particularly since the publication of this report. They have suffered the biggest loss and are entitled to ask questions and to seek answers and accountability. They have shown enormous strength and courage during the last four and a half years. That needs to be respected and the Minister needs to have ongoing engagement with these families rather than just marking the issuing of this report. Their concerns must be respected.

Every day, I am very proud to be from Mayo but I was particularly proud during the days, weeks and months following this tragedy. The communities of Belmullet, Aghleam, Binghamstown, Blacksod, the Erris Peninsula and Erris rallied in a way that had never been seen before. It was truly a meitheal. All of those who opened their homes, their hearts and their lives to people coming from all over the country to assist in the search deserve great recognition and credit. Mayo County Council, An Garda Síochána, our Defence Forces, the Coast Guard units of Ballyglass, Killala and Achill, the RNLI and local medical personnel all rallied in the most extraordinary effort, initially to find and save the crew and then to walk with the family on those terrible nights. That too needs to be acknowledged. I hope that the Minister will get the chance at some stage to visit the community, to see it for himself and to meet members of the community and hear their recollections of that time.

Those of us who live in coastal communities know the sound of that chopper as it flies over our homes. We know that, whatever part of the country those crews are coming from, they are on their way to assist. However, we did not know much of what has been outlined in the report with regard to the confusion over roles, call-outs and the management of that particular service. It is appalling that it took this tragedy to bring these issues to light. When we hear that chopper flying over us, we immediately think of families who may be about to get bad news or, hopefully, to be saved from bad news because of the efforts of those in the chopper and those behind them on the ground. That too needs to be supported.

The current challenges within the Coast Guard are incredibly unfortunate and unfair on volunteers right across our coastline and on our islands who are willing to stop their lives at any given minute to go to the assistance of others in very unpredictable and dangerous conditions 24-7. They deserve certainty and respect. They deserve for their voices to be heard in a co-operative and collaborative manner. That is not happening at the moment and that needs to be addressed urgently because, if that gets in, it ruins the spirit of volunteerism within the Coast Guard.

I wonder why we are contracting out our search and rescue service. As an island nation that is dependent on those who work on the sea, we at least owe them assurance that the State will protect them. It should do so with our own service either through our Air Corps or a specific State-run search and rescue air service. We cannot allow our search and rescue operations to be run for profit. We cannot allow them to be an asset on a balance sheet. It is a national service to protect our sea-faring communities in the work that they do. It is time that we ask ourselves whether this is an appropriate way to run that service.

There is a commitment to an EU review of search and rescue services. This matter needs to be part of that EU review. I have seen the defence given that EU procurement laws dictate our current procurement and tender system in this area but surely, given the challenges in respect of migrants and many other issues, there would be an appreciation at EU level that search and rescue and the protection of our coast is a State function that should be carried out and staffed by the State. The most important thing is that we give a commitment that this will not be allowed to happen again and that the many flaws identified in what was a limited report will not arise again.

The very notion that a structure such as Blacksod Lighthouse and Black Rock Island were not in the so-called enhanced ground proximity warning system is still incredible. As for the fact that had been highlighted some years beforehand and was not dealt with, who is being held responsible for that? So many issues of fault have been laid out in detail in the report. I acknowledge it was designed not to find fault, but facts have been laid out that show somebody was responsible. They show that if somebody had dealt with these issues in time, then maybe, just maybe, this would not have occurred. We cannot say that for definite, but the odds of it occurring would have been much lower. We have to hold people accountable for that because if they are not held to account, what else are others getting away with throughout the system? Four people lost their lives in the service of the State, yet some of the factors contributing to that, laid out in the report, had been highlighted ahead of it happening.

We owe it to them, their families and everyone who tonight is at the end of a bleeper awaiting a Coast Guard or search and rescue call, that is, every member of our emergency personnel whose life is dictated by a bleeper, full time and voluntary, that everything laid out in the report will be pursued. We owe it to them that the people who ignored the signposts highlighted in the report will be held accountable. If there is a culture of accountability, throughout the emergency service but especially, in this context, within the SAR service, people will know they have to do their job.

There are a number of other issues that could be dealt with. The Ballyglass Coast Guard, with which Deputy Conway-Walsh works closely, is a phenomenal unit and needs a permanent base. It carried out the most extraordinary work during that time, although it does so all the time. It has been messed around by various State agencies in trying to get a permanent functioning base that is fit for purpose. Will the Minister pursue that within his Department, as a mark of the unit's considerable work? The same goes for the RNLI and all the units in that area. They will do this work again tonight and every night. They are ready, willing and able to go to sea. What they need is the infrastructure and support. Most important in the context of the Coast Guard at the moment, they need respect, and that drive for respect has to come from the Minister's office.

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