Conor McGuinness (Waterford, Sinn Fein)

With respect, the Minister of State provided a lot of information that we already knew about the service provided. We know it because we have met air crews, because we have been following this case and because we do our jobs and keep abreast of these issues. The question we are putting to the Minister of State and his colleagues in government is whether the Government will act to resolve this issue to ensure compliance with the working time directive and aviation regulations so that the working time that search and rescue crews are actually doing is recorded as such. This is about safety and combating fatigue. It is about ensuring that our search and rescue air crews are at their very best when they are answering a call, be it to an offshore island, be it to a fishing trawler in trouble off our coast, be it to a road traffic accident along the N24 the N25 in Waterford, or any of the issues they are asked to respond to. Communities like mine in Waterford know the value of a search and rescue presence but we are concerned when we are hearing from crews themselves that their lives and their ability to do their work have been put in jeopardy by the Government's failure to act.

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