Vol. 482 No. 8
82 Mr. Daly asked the Minister for the Marine and Natural Resources if he will ensure that there will be no downgrading of the Search and Rescue Service being provided for the west coast in view of the extension of the Search and Rescue Service to the east coast. [19568/97]
I announced on 14 November 1997 that Bond Helicopters (Ireland) Limited had been awarded a contract to provide a new medium load carrying marine emergency helicopter service for the east coast. The new service is expected to commence on 1 July 1998.
The contract helicopter will be fully fitted for all weather service, including autohover and forward looking infra red equipment, and will be operational on a 24-hour basis. While the new service will be based at Dublin it will be capable of operating throughout the Irish search and rescue region and will be available to support our other dedicated search and rescue assets, including the Shannon based marine emergency helicopter service.
This new service represents a significant enhancement of the marine emergency response infrastructure and I can assure the Deputy that it will not lead to any downgrading of the existing Shannon based helicopter service.
