Holly Cairns (Cork South-West, Social Democrats)
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207. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport to provide the number and location of helicopters currently used by the coastguard service; the range and on-scene time of each helicopter; and whether each helicopter is certified to carry stretchered patients. [35283/25]

Holly Cairns (Cork South-West, Social Democrats)
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208. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport whether his Department has issued specific criteria around the range, on-scene time capability and stretcher certifications required for helicopters in the coastguard and air ambulance fleets; and if so, whether he would provide these criteria. [35284/25]

Seán Canney (Galway East, Independent)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 207 and 208 together.

As Minister of State for International & Road Transport, Logistics, Rail & Ports, I have responsibility for the Irish Coast Guard and the SAR Aviation Contract.

Irish Coast Guard (IRCG) Search and Rescue (SAR) Aviation Services are provided under a contract which is currently transitioning to Bristow Ireland Limited (BIL). The IAA regulates Coast Guard aviation services.

The new aviation contract provides for the operation of four IRCG SAR Search and Rescue Helicopter Bases located at Sligo, Shannon, Waterford, and Dublin (Weston) and for the first time a Fixed Wing (FW) service also located at Shannon. The new SAR helicopter contract is delivered by a fleet of six AW 189 helicopters, five of which are newly constructed and are already in service in Ireland. The sixth helicopter is due to enter service in September 2025.

The AW189 is an internationally proven SAR helicopter that is also extensively used in the offshore Oil and gas business. The AW189 range meets and significantly exceeds the RFT specification, considering the maximum required range to the western extremity of our search and rescue region thus ensuring it meet Irelands national and international SAR obligations.

In April of this year the service operator was notified by IAA that the stretcher in use did not meet regulatory requirements for delivery of HEMS services. The IAA directive only applied to HEMS (helicopter emergency medical support) operations and had no impact on the use of stretchers for SAR operations. This directive had no impact on delivery of primary Coast Guard SAR services, which include all SAR activities, both inland and maritime, day and nighttime aeromedical support to offshore island communities and extraction of casualties from areas that are inaccessible by ambulance. The operator has since procured new HEMS stretchers thus addressing the regulatory issue.

The new contract will enhance the Coast Guard’s ability to deliver on its maritime and inland SAR services, its maritime environmental monitoring roles and the added value of support provided to other State entities including SAR support to An Garda Síochána, aeromedical support to HSE/NAS, day and nighttime aeromedical support to the offshore island communities and a capacity to provide aerial firefighting support to the National Directorate for Fire and Emergency Management.

Since the introduction of the service the Coast Guard has received positive feed back from key stakeholders including offshore island medical practitioners and mountain rescue teams. To date in addition to the introduction of the Fixed Wing service, the new operator has assumed responsibility for the Shannon and Dublin (Weston) bases with the remaining two bases set to transition over the next seven months.