Pádraic McCormack
Question:59 Mr. McCormack asked the Minister for the Marine and Natural Resources the proposals, if any, the Government has for an action plan to deal with oil spillages and other sea disasters. [3839/00]
Written Answers. - Disasters at Sea.
I am satisfied that existing arrangements within my Department provide for an action plan to deal with oil spillages and other sea disasters.
Among the responsibilities of the Irish Coast Guard of my Department are those for (1) search and rescue and search and recovery services for persons in distress or missing within the Irish marine search and rescue region (IMSRR), the coastal littoral area and inland rivers, lakes and waterways. (2) Responsibility for preparedness and response to pollution reports and incidents in the Irish marine pollution responsibility zone (IMPREZ) including local and harbour authority areas, oil jetties and off shore oil Installations. (3) Response plan approval and intervention in casualty or salvage situations required by the Salvage and Wreck Act, 1993, and the Sea Pollution Act, 1991, which includes the saving of the vessel, its cargo and the apparel of the vessel and protection of the coastline. (4)A national marine broadcasting network exists for, inter alia, marine information, weather and radio navigation warning broadcast service for shipping and other sea and coastline users.
To discharge its responsibilities, the Irish Coast Guard of my Department has 65 full-time staff and 680 volunteers. It manages and operates three co-ordination/communication centres at Dublin, Malin Head and Valentia, 13 remote VHF sites, two voice repeater sites and 50 coastal emergency response stations providing shore coverage. The Irish Coast Guard has contracted two civilian Sikorski S61N search and rescue helicopters, one at Shannon and the second at Dublin Airports. Stocks of pollution equipment are retained at Killybegs and Castletownbere and training courses are run at different levels in marine pollution preparedness and familiarisation with pollution equipment. Harbour and maritime local authorities are invited to participate in such courses. The main ports at Dublin, Cork, Limerick and Waterford also hold stockpiles of pollution equipment and the Irish Coast Guard works closely with them in this regard.
The Sea Pollution (Amendment) Act, 1999, designates the Irish Coast Guard as the Irish national response agency for oil pollution preparedness response and co-operation. Arising from this, the Irish Coast Guard supervises the planning and implementation by local and harbour authorities of arrangements for the protection of coastal amenity/fishery/wildlife areas, and is responsible for the removal of oil from the coastline and in the event of major pollution incidents, the direction of co-ordination of the on-shore response.
In addition to its own resources, the Irish Coast Guard has a number of declared resources available on a 24 hour basis all year round. These include two Air Corps search and rescue helicopters based at Finner, Co. Donegal and Waterford Airport, the RNLI which has 24 lifeboat stations around the coast and six community inshore rescue service boats based in strategic locations. I should stress that while the Irish Coast Guard helicopters are based at Shannon and Dublin Airports and an Air Corps helicopter is based at Finner, they are available on a 24-hour 365 day basis for emergency response on any part of the coastline. They are positioned so that they can reach, by day, 40 nautical miles off-shore in one hour and by night or in bad weather, 100 nautical miles in two hours. The Irish Coast Guard can call on the Department of Defence naval vessels and divers, the Air Corps fixed wing aircraft, the Garda and their divers and UK coastguard and all vessels at sea in a marine emergency situation.
An assessment of the expenditure review of IMES, now the Irish Coast Guard has commenced with a view to maintaining and enhancing the high quality provision of search and rescue and pollution response in our marine and littoral areas. An enhancement of pollution surveillance operations is under consideration with a view to acting as a deterrent to pollution. An Irish emergency towing vessel study has been completed recently and the report concludes that there is a need for an ETV. This must now be assessed within my Department in relation to factors such as procurement options, costs, possible additional roles, location, etc.