Michael McCarthy (Labour)

I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Billy Kelleher, to the House and congratulate him on his appointment as Minister of State. I thank the Cathaoirleach and the Leader of the House for organising this debate. There have been some fine fiery debates in this House during this term and I am sure this debate will not be any different.

This issue is of the utmost importance for the people of Valentia Island and Malin Head. I commend the manner in which people in both areas have campaigned with honesty and dignity. They have succeeded in bringing this issue to national prominence. I congratulate them on their efforts and I assure them of the Labour Party's ongoing support for them in their campaigns.

I express my complete opposition to any proposal to close these stations under the Government's restructuring plan for the Irish Coast Guard. I suggest it is not the Coast Guard stations that need restructuring but rather the Government because of its plain lack of support for rural Ireland. I call on the Minister, Deputy Noel Dempsey, to reverse immediately the Government's plan to shut down transmissions from these maritime coastal stations and to give a clear and unambiguous guarantee that Valentia in County Kerry and Malin Head in County Donegal will continue to operate as Coast Guard radio stations, that no jobs will be lost and that no employees will be redeployed elsewhere.

This matter confirms my long-held belief that this Government has lost touch with rural Ireland. The Minister's plan to close these world-renowned stations and build a new station in a yet to be announced location makes no sense. There is no financial or geographic reason for it and safety at sea will not be enhanced if the plan goes ahead. The idea goes against the 2002 consultants' report which put forward the option of upgrading both Valentia and Malin Head stations. It seems the Minister is intent on carrying on his tradition of going headlong into a battle without first properly thinking through the feasibility of his Department's plan. He would do well to take less notice of civil servants in Dublin and listen instead to party colleagues and others throughout the country, people who represent coastal and maritime constituencies such as mine — Cork South-West.

Following the Shannon-Heathrow debacle, one would have thought the Minister would have learned a lesson but sadly this is not the case. Lest we forget, this is the same Minister who invented the idea of electronic voting, who fought tooth and nail with fishermen and endeavoured to destroy the fishing industry in this country, who contemplated the reintroduction of third level college fees, who also tried to take hundreds of thousands of learner drivers off the road over one bank holiday weekend without providing adequate driving test places. Now he wants to endanger the lives and livelihoods of another 40 families in some of the most rural places in the country. It strikes me that the Minister is like a kamikaze pilot intent on flying into something and blowing it up.

Coming from a coastal constituency like Cork South-West, I am especially concerned about Valentia. I am acutely aware of the importance of this radio station to coastal and fishing communities all around the south-west coast. I think of the fishing communities in Castletownbere, Union Hall, Baltimore, Kinsale and so on. Valentia's proud history as an important centre of communications has been sustained since 1858 when the first messages were sent across the Atlantic.

The Valentia Coast Guard station is the busiest in the country when it comes to dealing with serious marine incidents and its staff are highly skilled. One does not just make a decision to end all this, especially when one considers the Deloitte & Touche consultants' report, paid for by taxpayers, which recommended the complete opposite of what the Minister is trying to do.

I refer to what a Fianna Fáil county councillor in County Kerry, Paul O'Donoghue, said — he happens to be the brother of the Ceann Comhairle: "You don't close these facilities, you enhance them." The Minister would do very well to listen to his party colleagues in Kerry. More stations of this calibre are needed rather than closure and downgrading.

The UK coastguard service has 19 stations and covers almost 18,000 km of coastline, leaving about 900 km of coastline per station. If the Minister's plan goes ahead, the Irish Coast Guard will be downgraded to two stations and each station will cover a coastline of 3,700 km. This is a frightening statistic and it cannot be allowed to happen. At its most basic, this plan has a major flaw and it highlights the Government's complete hypocrisy regarding its regional development policy. In the era of decentralisation the Minister is going against the grain and centralising these facilities. This will have significant consequences not only for the 35 to 40 jobs at stake but also for entire coastal communities. The removal of these jobs is a vote of no confidence in the south west and north west. It is equivalent to pulling the rug out from under efforts to create jobs in rural Ireland. It is another example, as if one were needed, that this Government is bowing to the advice of civil servants and ignoring the needs of rural Ireland.

I commented earlier on the dignity and honesty of those in these two communities who are campaigning to stop these closures, and it is a pity the same could not be said about the Minister, with his undisclosed reports, the mistruths being bandied about and the eloquent points made about the same inaccuracies by Senators on the Government side. Members have been informed about the poor electricity supply, the lack of technology, reduced access to universities and no shops for the staff. This is all nonsense. It is unbelievable that the same people who are listening to this advice are the same people who have been in Government for the past 11 years.

I am not for a moment taking from the genuine and sincere remarks made by Senators on the Government side but another point needs to be made about the dual role of Government party Members in both Houses who serve as Opposition and Government at the same time. My colleague, Deputy Willie Penrose, spoke in the other House during the Private Members' motion on agency workers:

We will no longer tolerate Deputies [and Senators] who are all things to all people in their constituencies but do not express the views of [their constituents] when they get an opportunity to make decisions on important matters in the [House] ... We do not want any nice token speeches from members of this Government.

We want action. It is not good enough for these people to go to a constituency or head out to the plinth and say one thing while their voting record proves they towed the party line. The late Deputy Jim Kemmy spoke to a Fianna Fáil Limerick Deputy about an issue of significant importance to Limerick. The same Deputy went on to become promoted in many Governments since that time. He accused him of being Mighty Mouse in Limerick and a church mouse in Dáil Éireann.

In the 11 years of this Government we have seen many policies which have denigrated rural Ireland. The rural creameries and the post offices are all gone. The Government, in conjunction with the Health Service Executive, is now trying to exterminate the rural pharmacies and shut them down as well. To add a sense of irony, a Government party Senator appeared on "The Week In Politics" recently and made a point which I had made in this House when this decision was announced. It was that 20 jobs in rural Ireland was the equivalent of 2,000 jobs in Dublin. If that logic were to be applied, it would be equal to a loss of about 22,000 jobs for the Dublin area, which is a frightening statistic. However, no one is batting an eyelid.

Things have gone from bad to worse in the area of employment. According to information available to me from the Department of Social and Family Affairs, the total number of unemployed in my area between the last Friday of 2004 and the last Friday of January 2008, has risen by 228 people. This would also be representative of other areas. I was unable to obtain figures for my town because the social welfare office in Dunmanway has been shut down by this Government. I have raised this matter on the Adjournment with the Minister of State, Deputy Batt O'Keeffe, and I have tabled several questions to the Minister, Deputy Cullen. Trying to get information is like trying to get blood out of a turnip.

I reiterate my three questions for the Minister, Deputy Noel Dempsey. Can he give Members a clear and unambiguous guarantee that Valentia in County Kerry and Malin Head in County Donegal will continue to operate as Coast Guard radio stations? Can he guarantee Members that no jobs will be lost and can he also guarantee the House that no employees will be deployed elsewhere? My party fully supports the campaign to save these marine radio stations and we ask the Minister to consider rural Ireland and the coastal communities who are at the pin of their collars and fighting an uphill battle for survival. We ask the Minister to consider the employees and their families and we ask him to make a stand against the anti-rural bias so clearly evident in so many Government decisions. There is cross-party agreement in this House for the points I have just made. Every Senator, Government and Opposition, is singing from the same hymn sheet. The Minister, Deputy Dempsey, would do very well to listen.