Marie Sherlock (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I wish to express the condolences of the Labour Party Group to our colleague Senator Moynihan who lost her mother at the weekend.

At the start of this week, Max Shields, a 15-year-old boy from Clondalkin, lost his life when swimming in the Grand Canal. I express my condolences to his family. This is the time of year when the weather becomes wonderful, thank God, and people take to the big beaches, the rivers and the canals. Indeed, there were people swimming in the canal at Phibsborough at the weekend. We want people to be able to swim. However, understanding the risks involved and people's ability to swim is absolutely crucial, as is what the State is doing to ensure safety in our waterways. Much attention is being paid to road safety at the moment. When we look back over the five-year period between 2017 and 2021, we can see that 1,298 people died on the roads and in the water. Some 45% of those deaths occurred in the water. Listening to all of the coverage, one would think that the vast majority of accidental deaths that take place in this country occur on the roads and that very few happen in the water. That is not the case. The overwhelming majority of those who die in our waters are male, approximately 79%. Most of these incidents happen in home counties and the majority are accidental in nature.

When we look at where Ireland stands in the context of drownings relative to other EU countries, it can be seen that we lie at about the halfway mark. However, we have approximately 3.2 times the rate of drownings per 100,000 of population in comparison with our nearest neighbour, Britain. The reason for this is that we are simply not investing the time and resources or educating people to ensure that we reduce the numbers who drown in this country. For a start, we need to ensure that our education system is got right. Waterways Ireland has a fantastic programme for preschools, primary schools and secondary schools. Schools voluntarily adopt those programmes, but they are not a formal required part of the curriculum. They should be.

The second key point relates to lifeguards. The season in Ireland in this regard only begins on 1 June. Lifeguards are only in place weekends in June. They are there on a full-time basis in July and August and for the first two weeks in September. That has to change. John O'Regan, my colleague in Carrigaline, County Cork, and I are aware that councillors across the country have been calling for the lifeguarding season to be extended to start on 1 May. They are also calling for it to operate on a full-time basis - not just at weekends - from that date right up to the end of September. We have to ensure that we have enough lifeguards on our beaches and at other popular places for swimming.

The other side of this matter is that we have to look at the pay of lifeguards. We know that there is a major differential between local authorities. We know that certain local authorities are very much struggling to recruit lifeguards this summer. We know that Sligo has outlined the shortage it faces, as has Fingal. Any of the parliamentary questions on this issue tabled in the Dáil have been referred by the Minister for local government to Waterways Ireland. The latter has then passed the buck back to local authorities. We need a Government response. This should not be a difficult thing to do. There are a small number of measures that could be taken to save lives and ensure that we prevent heartbreak for families.