Malcolm Byrne (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Cuirim fáilte roimh an Aire Stáit. I want to raise the question of support for community rescue boats, in particular Cahore Inshore Rescue Service. It is in a part of the world with which we are both quite familiar. It is a beautiful part of the world with a great deal of wonderful coastline. Cahore Inshore Rescue Service provides a vital service to the north Wexford community. It works very closely with the Coast Guard based out of Courtown. It is a volunteer service that was formed almost 30 years ago following a tragic local drowning. It is very active in our local community. It is on call 24-7 every day of the year in case, unfortunately, we see problems on our waters.

The only funding it receives from the Government, like many of these services throughout the country, including a number of mountain rescue services, is a grant of €5,000 annually from the Minister of State's Department. This grant has not been increased in 15 years and it is the same for all of these services. Cahore Inshore Rescue Service's annual running costs are something of the order of €25,000 every year. This is similar to the other services. The €5,000 grant will barely cover the cost of insurance to provide what is a vital service. If Cahore Inshore Rescue Service was not providing the service, the pressure would come on the State to provide it instead.

The big question I want to ask is not so much about the ongoing costs, although certainly an increase in the grant would be appreciated, it is about significant capital costs. Cahore Inshore Rescue Service maintains its coastal station but the big cost it has at present is the need for a replacement lifeboat. This will cost something in the order of €125,000. As the current boat is more than 15 years old, we can appreciate the urgency.What is important, given the Minister of State's Department is providing the funding in this area for all these community rescue boats in the country - this is the only one on the east coast but there are quite a number along the southern coast and especially up along the west coast - is that when they face some of these major capital costs, there is some funding stream to which they can apply to address a challenge such as the need to purchase a new boat. No other source of funding is available to them in terms of the LEADER programme or the LCDC programmes locally. Cahore, like all other areas in County Wexford, does not qualify for CLÁR funding because it is not an area of population decline. There is no other source of funding other than, respectfully, through the Minister of State's Department.

My question concerns the basic ongoing running costs and what supports can be made available to this group and to the community lifeboats in the form of the existing €5,000 grant but also, specifically, where some of these organisations doing vital work can apply for capital funding. It will not be needed regularly. As we have seen, the boat has been there for more than 15 years. Such funding will only be needed when there is a big cost, like a major repair to a building or a boat. Councillor Pip Breen, who is from the area and is cathaoirleach of Wexford County Council, has also been raising this issue. The Minister of State and I are both extremely familiar with the locality and I hope he might be able to give us some positive news.