Fidelma Healy Eames (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Cuirim fáilte roimh an Aire Stáit. This matter concerns the need for the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport to outline the available structures and funding sources available to support a new and emerging group called the Oranmore-Maree coastal search unit, whose purpose is to search for missing persons who may have fallen into the water in Galway city. Sadly, many people have lost their lives this way. Bodies sometime emerge in the area where I live.

The rate can be unbelievable and, on average, eight to nine bodies are found every year along the coastal area of Oranmore, Maree and Renville. It is the scientific nature of tides that this is the area where the bodies tend to come up. The Minister of State will know from media reports that we have all been touched recently by the sad death of young Michael Bugler from Ennis, who after approximately 21 days was found in our local area. This event touched everybody and in our area we had, on average, 300 volunteers per day looking for the man. These included people from Galway and Ennis, where he was from, who came together to congregate in Calasanctious College and Oranmore community centre. We were lucky to have that facility because this happened over the Christmas period. We would not always have that type of space but we did because it was Christmas. Sadly, another young man from my own local parish, Donal Greene, passed away tragically earlier last year. He was from our area but he died in Cavan. Our community moved to Cavan and we saw how the local community there came out.

What emerges from this is that although there is a strong volunteer spirit, we need to be better organised. The Garda and the Royal National Lifeboat Institution have let us know they are often searching for people on their own. A very clear wish has emerged that we need at least 60 trained volunteers who will be able to cope, for example, with finding a body. They should have the appropriate training and clothing. So many people come along with goodwill, and we could never stop them, but we need trained leaders in each of the search zones. We have worked out that there are 16 search zones from Galway city down to north Clare along the coast. We are giving leadership and, locally, we can cover at least eight of those. We have met representatives of the Garda and RNLI and they are delighted with this offer of help but they have said they need greater support.

We are seeking very basic funding to get started, which will probably be up to €10,000. The training of 60 volunteers is estimated at approximately €100 each. Proper clothing is also required, along with high-visibility vests, boots and prototype information sheets to allow distribution of the right information to all search volunteers before they come into any daily search. It is unbelievable that we are talking about this. Prevention is the best cure and it is another element. It is a sad reality that many of our young people fall into the water, accidentally or otherwise, around Galway city and the Claddagh or docks area in particular.

This is the voice of the public reaching out to the Minister. I am deeply moved by the work of this group, of which I am a part. This may be our last sitting in Seanad Éireann in this session and it would be great to end it by getting the goodwill of the Minister. Will the Minister of State indicate where we can find funding and make a commitment to this?