Paul Coghlan (Fine Gael)

I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Michael Ahern, to the House in the absence of the Minister, Deputy Noel Dempsey. The Minister of State has, with words clothed in reason's garb, endeavoured to make the worse appear the better reason. It is effectively a hatchet job for Valentia and Malin, with which no Senator on either side of the House accepts or agrees.

We should be promoting employment and social inclusion in these peripheral areas, an idea to which we would all subscribe. The removal of jobs from these areas to a proposed site 20 miles or so from Dublin makes a nonsense of Government decentralisation policy. I am informed that assistant secretary John Fearon's report of October last was based on much out-of-date information and has been rebutted by the Inishowen Development Partnership, IDP, response. Facts referred to in the IDP rebuttal regarding power supply and communications have been confirmed by ESB Networks and the Letterkenny Institute of Technology report. Some Senators opposite are more familiar with that and no doubt they will elaborate on it.

The republic's smallest area of sole responsibility is the Irish Sea and not the north west or south west coasts, where the reductions in staffing are being considered. The report in the Oban Times shows the reality of closing MRCCs and the cost in human lives lost at sea. The report of the British select committee reinforces this view. It also highlights the problem of accessing a supply of adequately trained staff.

The suggestion from Inishowen Development Partnership is that operational control should be maintained at Valentia and Malin Head, where years of experience support existing services and where there is a pool of qualified applicants available from the fishing industry for any staff positions that may be required in either of the two stations. That is very much the view from Valentia and the south west also.

Headquarters, stores, logistics, administration and training staff and facilities could be concentrated in an area north of Dublin, either Drogheda or the proposed new port facility at Bremore. A stand-by radio and MRCC facility could be included in this headquarters for training and emergency services. This should satisfy the Minister while still maintaining the core of excellence inherent in Valentia and Malin.

The total downgrade of Valentia and Malin could be described as decentralisation in reverse. Instead of planning to shut down these centres the Government should support proposals to upgrade the facilities at both, and the centres re-equipped and left in place. This was recommended by the Deloitte & Touche report we have been informed so much about.

Valentia and Malin Coast Guard stations have done a wonderful and sterling job in the service of the State as MRCCs where highly-skilled and dedicated staff deal with serious marine incidents. They have done so successfully over a long period. The arguments for moving the centres away from the coasts and into an urban location do not stand up. There is nothing substandard about the infrastructure in either location and there are no valid arguments based on electrical supply, broadband or cost effectiveness.

I strongly urge the Minister to accept what another Minister, Deputy Dermot Ahern, agreed in signing off on the Deloitte & Touche report recommendations to upgrade the two stations. Centralising the operations of Valentia and Malin to an urban location would be a total reversal of everything that this Government has been preaching about supporting peripheral areas.