Gerald Nash (Louth, Labour)
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291. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport the specific constraints (details supplied) that prevent the Irish Coast Guard Service from providing a full 24-hour service to the HSE; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [33633/20]

Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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The Coast Guard provides national and international patient transfer services to the HSE on a request and as available basis through a Service Level Agreement with the HSE. In practice, international transfer assistance arises in situations where commercial or Air Corps options are not available. Different regulatory constraints apply to such non – SAR services as they are under flown under Commercial Air Transport (CAT) regulations which prescribe, inter alia, mandatory crew rest periods after the lapse of designated duty periods. To that end, CAT missions are not flown between the hours of 2300 and 0730 and accordingly the Coast Guard’s helicopter service is not in a position to provide international patient transfer services from 1900 as travel time to and from UK has to be factored in.