Donna McGettigan (Clare, Sinn Fein)
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293. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport the reason 24-hour search and rescue services are not operational from Shannon Airport; the action that can be taken to rectify this; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [10993/25]

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal East, Fianna Fail)
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The decision to award the contract to Bristow Ireland Limited (BIL) for the next Coast Guard Search & Rescue Aviation Service contract was approved by Government in mid-2023, following a comprehensive public procurement process which was undertaken fully in accordance with all national and EU procurement rules. During the 2-year transition phase, the overarching priority remains the safe and effective transition without interruption to this essential service.

The transition from CHCI to Bristow Ireland (BIL) is a complex process that requires close co-operation by both commercial operators as per contractual obligations, to ensure the safety of crew and continuation of 24/7 SAR cover for Ireland's Search & Rescue Region. The first of the four SAR bases to transition to the new contract was Shannon. BIL commenced services there on 7 December. The Department anticipates that 24/7 operations will be established in Shannon within the next three weeks.

The safety of crew, citizens and mariners is the overarching priority during the transition process. If the Department recognises the need to revise transition dates to ensure overall safety, this will be done without hesitation and expects full cooperation of both contractors to facilitate revised transition timelines.

The operation of four SAR helicopter bases in the country provides a resilience for service delivery so that when individual bases become temporarily unavailable, the workload is shared amongst the other bases. The availability of any base can range from full availability to partial availability, or to temporary unavailability. The resilience of the four-base strategy in Ireland has been of great benefit to CHCI in allowing them to fulfil their contractual obligations during the past 13 years and this resilience continues to be employed in supporting safe and effective transition without interruption to services.