Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent)
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73. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport if he will provide details on the search and rescue carried out for two paddleboarders on 13 August 2020 (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [22703/20]

Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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The Search and Rescue operation was coordinated by the Coast Guard Rescue Coordination Centre - MRSC Valentia and as with all search and rescue incidents is the subject of an incident review. Given the complexity of this incident in terms of number of search resources and duration of the incident the review is not yet to hand.

Valentia first became aware of the incident shortly after 10pm on 12^thAugust and a full scale search and rescue mission was mounted. The Galway RNLI was the first resource to be tasked, followed by the Shannon based Coast Guard Helicopter and Aran Islands lifeboat. Coast Guard units based at Costelloe Bay and Doolin were also tasked that night. The Sligo based helicopter joined the search shortly before 3 AM, the Shannon Helicopter was subsequently re-tasked to be relieved by the Waterford based helicopter. From early morning 17 vessels of opportunity participated in the search and were coordinated by Valentia.

All search equipment on the Coast Guard helicopters including Forward Looking Infra-Red (FLIR) and Night Sun search light were fully operational. The search was hampered by poor visibility, squalls and heavy showers. The search planning tool used by the Coast Guard automatically utilises wind and tide conditions and subsequent checks confirmed that information for the locality was accurately recorded.

Search planning had to be mindful of many potential changing scenarios in terms of the potential location of the casualties with regard to changing tides, local weather variations, the potential that the casualties might have been individually separated or separated from the boards. The possibility that they might have paddled ashore or got access to another stationary device had also to be considered. In that context a number of reports of potential sightings were also considered, most of which were investigated.

The casualties were eventually located within the predicted search box, mindful that with the passage of time this box would have considerably expanded. At that time the focus of the search was moving to the South West of Galway Bay and the Aran Islands. Shortly after 11 Am on the 13^thof August a member of the public on Inisheer alerted Valentia to a possible sighting South West of Inisheer. A number of resources were tasked to the area. This message was picked up by the vessel Johhny O, operated by the members of the Oliver family and they were requested by Valentia to also proceed to the area of interest. As is well documented the Oliver’s were first on scene and successfully located and recovered the casualties.

The casualties displayed an immense level of mental and physical strength to have survived their ordeal and to their credit were wearing personal floatation devices. Of equal importance was the fact that the alert was raised when they had not returned at the anticipated time.

This is a an incident with a happy ending and as always the response and collaboration of the Search and Rescue resources supported by the maritime and local communities was of the highest standard.