Anne Rabbitte (Galway East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Acting Chairperson and Senator Byrne. He is raising this matter for the fourth time today. I am pleased to provide a further update on the matter, which I know he previously raised with the Minister of State, Deputy O'Donovan, on whose behalf I am taking the Commencement matter. He sends his apologies for not being in a position to attend this morning.I will let the Senator judge whether we have made progress.

The Irish Coast Guard, a division of the Department of Transport, has 44 units based in 58 Coast Guard stations. The Coast Guard building programme, which includes the provision of new or upgraded facilities at a number of locations across the country, is managed by the OPW on behalf of the Department of Transport from planning design to build and ongoing maintenance. These projects are funded by the Department of Transport.

Programme priorities are decided by the Irish Coast Guard and the programme is overseen by a programme oversight group consisting of representatives from Department of Transport, the Coast Guard and the OPW. The OPW provides advice and assistance on the design of such projects, site feasibility studies, acquisition of sites from the local authority or others, planning and detail design and manages the delivery in line with the requirements of the Department of Transport and the Coast Guard.

New accommodation for the Courtown Coast Guard unit is included as one of the key priorities of this delivery programme. The existing Courtown Coast Guard station is a single-room limestone-built building originally designed for storage of rescue equipment. It is situated at a busy intersection of three roads and has no available off-road area in which to park. The OPW has carried out some minor remedial works to the building in the past to provide dry storage and office space and to address essential health and safety issues. Although building works alleviated some of the problems, use of the facility in its current form is unsustainable. As the current site is only slightly larger than the building footprint and is bordered to the rear by a steep river gulley, there is very limited capacity to provide for any expansion or upgraded facility.

Since this matter was last raised, the OPW is continuing to liaise with the Irish Coast Guard to progress a proposed new location for the Coast Guard station at Courtown. As outlined previously a number of potential sites in the ownership of the local authority had been put forward by the Coast Guard but these sites are no longer available. However, the OPW has continued to engage with Wexford County Council and received clarity in late June regarding a potential site that, subject to the completion of legal due diligence, may be available. In addition, a market trawl identified a number of other potential sites that may meet the requirements of the Coast Guard.

All potential sites are going through an appraisal process in accordance with the requirements of the public spending code. As part of the appraisal process, feasibility studies will be carried out on the potential sites in the coming weeks to ensure that all the Coast Guard requirements can be provided for and that there is no impediment to the proposed development, which will be subject to planning. The feasibility studies will allow the appraisal process to be completed and a preferred site to be identified. Following this, the OPW will enter into discussions on the acquisition of the site with the owner and the project will move forward to the next stages in the process. As the appraisal process is still ongoing, we are not in a position to provide further information on individual sites at this time.

Unfortunately, at this time, it is not possible to provide a commencement date for the start of the construction of a new facility in Courtown. However, once a suitable site is acquired, the Minister of State's officials will assign a project team to commence the planning and detail design and manage the delivery of the programme.