Michael Collins (Cork South-West, Independent Ireland Party)

I welcome Sinn Féin’s focus on the men and women who fly our Coast Guard helicopters. Crews are on call for 24 hours straight, and deserve every ounce of political backing we can give. I certainly know that myself because the Irish Coast Guard in Schull and Goleen where I live myself are people who are second to none. They gave their time freely and need the protections we will support here.

For Independent Ireland, front-line workers come first, whether they wear the uniform of An Garda Síochána, a Coast Guard jacket or a flight suit. If a front-line worker is on a 24-hour shift, every hour must be recognised and respected. It offends common sense to pretend that a crew that must launch in minutes is somehow at rest for a part of their shift. That is not rest, that is responsibility. It must count as working time for safety and fairness.

This dispute is not with the crews; it is with the system that makes figures look better on paper than they are in the cockpit. Our coastal and island communities rely on a 24-hour, seven-day-a-week SAR service. When a call comes in from Cork or Limerick, nobody asks what the spreadsheet says. It asks how fast Rescue 115 can be overhead. Our manifesto is clear; fund SAR properly. Respect crews' working time and demand accountability. We support an urgent review of how hours are recorded and we want to know why the IAA signed off on this system. Accountability matters.

Finally, our ask of the Government is simple. It must end the factoring of 24-hour shifts, record every hour crews are on call and put in place a transparent system with crews at the table, in order that fatigue is never traded off against cost or convenience. When a call comes in from Bantry Bay or off the Cork coast, nobody asks what the spreadsheet is. Many of the calls I get are in relation to protecting people in the fishing industry. They come from pleasure boats as well but they come from the fishing industry in particular as people are out there in shocking weather and depend on the Coast Guard for their safety. SAR is not just a helicopter in west Cork. The Bantry Inshore Search and Rescue Association has also been saving lives since 1987. It is a clear resource of the Irish Coast Guard yet it receives no regular State funding. Its annual operating costs are about €26,000, raised through donations collected in buckets in local shops and pubs and through charity swims and crowdfunding. Every euro it spends comes from the community it serves. The association now faces a major challenge. It needs €1 million for Ireland’s first floating boathouse and a new high-tech rescue boat. Why? Faster response times and better equipment save lives. This is not a luxury; it is a necessity for safety in Bantry Bay and beyond.

Independent Ireland believes in value for money but value for money does not mean cutting corners or fatigue. We insist on proper funding for training and equipment in SAR, whether that is helicopters, volunteers or lifeboats. We demand accountability from the Irish Aviation Authority and the Department of Transport for systems that trade safety for convenience. Our ask of the Government is that in the factoring of 24-hour shifts for helicopter crews, a transparent system should be put in place with crews at the table to guarantee fatigue is never ignored and it should commit to supporting resources in order that volunteers are not left fundraising for basic safety infrastructure. Our coastal communities and crews deserve better. Our rescue services deserve the funding and oversight that keep people alive.

As I have the floor, I raised more than a year ago - and have not heard anything since- the disaster that happened off Bantry Bay in 1979. Many emergency services were called out during the Whiddy Island disaster. I have been calling and Michael Kingston has been calling for a full inquiry into that for 12 months. A full statutory inquiry has to take place in relation to the Whiddy Island disaster off Bantry Bay that killed 50 people.

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