Hildegarde Naughton (Galway West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank Senator Byrne for raising this issue. As he knows, the Department of Transport is responsible for the Irish Coast Guard building programme, essentially aimed at ensuring Coast Guard units along the coast are fit for purpose. The programme is managed through the Office of Public Works from planning and design to build and ongoing maintenance, with legal assistance as necessary from the Chief State Solicitor's Office. The programme is funded from the Department of Transport Vote. Medium-sized build projects of more than €750,000 are managed by OPW property management section and are overseen by an OPW senior architect. Smaller upgrading and renovation projects are managed by the OPW property management section. Day-to-day maintenance contracts are organised and managed by the OPW and funded by the Department. The Chief State Solicitor's Office guides and assists the IRCG with its building regularisation programme.

The capital envelope in Project 2040 includes increased funding for the IRCG towards the building and renovation costs of Coast Guard stations throughout the country, replacement and upgrade of search and rescue related equipment in the units and in the rescue centres, development of new IT systems to assist Coast Guard operations to deliver its service more effectively and efficiently, and the procurement of pollution prevention and other equipment relating to the Coast Guard remit.This capital envelope has gradually increased over recent years from €5 million in 2018 to €8 million in 2022 and should cater for additional one-off capital investments in coastguard stations around the country, commencing with Greystones and Westport.

Some of the existing buildings called rocket houses, as the Senator has alluded to, date back to the 19th century and do not provide the necessary accommodation to house 24-7 response units. The Senator has outlined that point clearly today. Therefore, the new builds are urgently required in terms of health and safety issues. Some of the factors that are taken into account include: the suitability of existing stations for modernisation and enlargement; the availability of suitable State-owned land for a new build; the legal and planning issues involved in developing brownfield or greenfield sites in high-visibility coastal amenity locations; the urgency of the works required in terms of health and safety or other issues; and the funds available to the Department each year. The OPW is currently working on building projects in Greystones and Westport, with both projects due to start construction this year. Planning permission has also been granted for Bonmahon, which will soon progress to construction phase. Other projects that have commenced include Castlefreke, which is in the planning phase, and Kilmore Quay and Cleggan, which are both at preplanning stage. Subject to planning permission, these projects could be advanced to construction stage. The reason the Senator is raising the matter today is the Courtown Coast Guard station, which is currently on the Irish Coast Guard building programme priority list. Wexford County Council had originally identified a suitable site for the proposed station in the Courtown Harbour area. Unfortunately, it is no longer in a position to offer this site to the Irish Coast Guard as it has a major economic stimulus project planned for the harbour area. It has offered to work with the Irish Coast Guard and the OPW to help identify alternative sites, some of which have been recently identified. Six possible sites have now been identified as suitable for a new station for Courtown Coast Guard. The OPW has commenced preliminary investigative work on these potential sites and will update us as these investigations progress. I am happy to come back to the Seanad to update the Senator in relation to the investigative works by the OPW.