Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I apologise to the Senator for keeping him waiting and I thank him for raising the matter. The engineering branch of the Irish Coast Guard provides a national maritime safety telecommunications and responder alerting and notification service. This involves the provision of a wide range of diverse but specialised systems. All design, procurement, project management, and subsequent administration and maintenance are carried out in-house by the small number of staff servicing this area.

Due to the large quantity of systems, services and equipment, and the need to replace aged equipment to ensure service availability, the engineering section is undertaking continual programmes of equipment modernisation. The workload has grown considerably in recent years due in no small part to the continual evolution of services that the automatic identification system, AIS, provides and the proliferation of external users, including the Naval Service, the Commissioners of Irish Lights, the North Sea regional server and the Maritime Safety and Security Information System, all of which use the system for the interconnection and exchange of data.

The role of an engineering officer covers a broad range of duties in terms of the management and operation of all technical aspects of the marine communications network. The engineering officer is required to diagnose and maintain a broad range of radio and telecommunications equipment used in maritime communications, responder alert and notification, vessel tracking technologies, and supporting infrastructure, including maintenance of all equipment employed in the national maritime communication networks; fault analysis across multiple wide-area telecommunication networks; identification and analysis of fault trends nationally and by equipment type; maintenance of radio site infrastructure, including antennae, masts, buildings, perimeter and access; maintenance of communications equipment at Coast Guard unit station houses, including equipment in boats and vehicles; co-ordination and management of multiple subcontractor and utility providers; and co-ordination and management of local spares and stock holding.

Additionally - this is an important factor in the requirement to fill the vacancy which arose in the Cork office - the engineering officer is responsible for the maintenance of communications equipment at Coast Guard unit station houses, including equipment in boats and vehicles and the co-ordination and management of multiple subcontractor and utility providers. The engineering officer reports to an electronics officer based in Dublin, who is responsible for the overall management and operation of all technical aspects of the national marine communications network.

Following recent amalgamations, there are currently approximately ten Coast Guard units throughout Cork and five in Kerry. A significant amount of travel throughout the region and out-of-hours availability is a necessary feature of the role. The Cork office continues to provide a good location for the overall fulfilment of the various engineering responsibilities and it is for this reason that the post is located in Cork.

The post became available on foot of the retirement of the previous incumbent. It has taken some time to fill the vacancy due to the need to comply with Department of Public Expenditure and Reform policy in filling public sector vacancies and also due to the requirements of the Public Appointment Service, PAS, recruitment process.The advertisement which issued from the PAS clearly indicated that the position to be filled was in the Cork office. I am happy to say that the recruitment process is now complete. The position has been offered to the successful candidate who is due to commence very shortly in the Cork office where the other Coast Guard staff are located.