Dáil Éireann debate -
Wednesday, 15 Nov 2000

Vol. 526 No. 1

Adjournment Debate. - Helicopter Rescue Service.

Mr. Deasy

On 3 November, a distress call was picked up at Waterford airport at 11.41 a.m. A 35 year old Welshman, Michael Davis, had fallen overboard from the Stena Link ferry travelling from Rosslare to Fishguard. The incident took place 17 miles off Carnsore Point. The distress signal was picked up by an Air Corps crew of an Alouette helicopter based at Waterford airport. They were anxious to participate in the rescue but were told by the Marine Rescue Co-ordination Centre not to do so because they had a particularly short range helicopter and did not have aircraft cover.

This seems incredible. The spokesman for the Marine Rescue Service said that the plane which provides occasional cover is based at Baldonnel and, because the incident happened at the week-end, it would have taken too long to get a crew together to go to the scene with the helicopter. It would have taken the helicopter 25 minutes from Waterford to have reached the man in the water. There is no criticism of the crew of the Sikorsky helicopter which came from Baldonnel, but that journey took one hour and 21 minutes. The man was taken from the water alive and was brought to Wexford General Hospital where he died. The secretary of the Rosslare Harbour Lifeboat Service said he had no doubt if the man had been taken out of the water within 25 minutes of falling in, he would still be alive but the extra 56 minutes meant he did not survive. That is a horrible indictment of the level of service available in the south east.

We had a terrible tragedy last July when four fine airmen were killed in a Dauphin helicopter at Tramore Strand. It is a disgrace that there has been no meaningful replacement service at Waterford Airport since. The crew in Waterford were confident that they could have saved the man if they had had the proper air cover or the original helicopter. The helicopter they have is not capable of carrying out an all-weather 24 hour rescue service.

I ask that a fully operational 24 hour rescue helicopter service be provided at Waterford Air port. The inquiry into the tragedy in Tramore showed that the proper systems were not in place and because of that, four airmen died. In the recent incident a man died because the helicopter based in Waterford Airport was not adequate to do the job required. Something must be done immediately. I ask that a proper rescue service be put in place.

Dr. Moffat

The Minister for the Marine and Natural Resources, Deputy Fahey, regrets he cannot be here to take part in this debate.

The Department of the Marine and Natural Resources, in consultation with the Departments of Defence and Finance has the primary responsibility to set the levels and standards of the air-sea support requirements for search and rescue (SAR). In that context, the Department of the Marine and Natural Resources recommended that the south east region be served by an all-weather, night flying helicopter and it remains Deputy Fahey's view that this be reinstated as soon as possible following the loss of the Dauphin in July 1999 with the tragic loss of four Air Corps crewmen.

Helicopter support for marine emergency response, which includes search and rescue, is provided by the Departments of the Marine and Natural Resources and Defence.

The Department of the Marine and Natural Resources provides two Sikorsky 61N helicopters on a 24 hour basis located at Dublin and Shannon airports, managed and operated by the Coast Guard. The S61N is a multi-engined all-weather, medium load carrying helicopter, equipped with autohover, with a declared maximum range, without refuelling, of approximately 230 nautical miles. From September 2001, the Irish Coast Guard helicopter service is being upgraded and from that date, the back-up helicopter will have the same autohover capacity as the other two helicopters.

The Department of Defence provides an Air Corps Dauphin SA 365F on a 24 hour basis located at Finner Army Camp, County Donegal and an Alouette 111, located at Waterford Airport. The Dauphin is a multi-engined, all-weather, light load carrying helicopter, equipped with autohover and with a declared maximum operating range of 150 nautical miles by day and 75 nautical miles by night. The Alouette 111 is a single-engined helicopter, restricted to off-shore visual contact flight conditions and daylight only and to operations to a maximum of three nautical miles off-shore. As the House is aware, the Alouette is in replacement of the Dauphin which crashed on Tramore beach on 2 July 1999 with the tragic loss of four crewmen. The Minister for the Marine and Natural Resources is very anxious that an all-weather night flying helicopter service is reinstated at Waterford as soon as possible.

The current deployment is based on the findings of a number of reports prepared over the period 1988 to 1996. While the present coverage is adequate, growing demands both off-shore and on-shore highlight the need to keep capacity and deployment under review.

The Minister for Defence announced on 12 July 2000, the first stage of a process to acquire new medium lift helicopters for the Air Corps.

This major investment programme involves the acquisition of two medium lift helicopters, with an option for a third, for search and rescue purposes as well as an option for two medium lift helicopters for general purpose military transport. The procurement of the helicopter is by way of a tender competition in accordance with Government contracts procedures and EU directives. The competition is being run in two stages, a request for proposals stage and a request for tenders stage. Six responses to the request for proposals were received in the Department of Defence on 21 September, 2000 and are now being evaluated.

The deployment of the helicopters will be a matter for consideration closer to delivery time. Obviously the situation at Wateford will have to be addressed as a matter of priority. A working group of the Departments of the Marine and Natural Resources and Defence has been set up on the subject of dedicated helicopter search and rescue assets. This group will, in tandem with the current tender competition for the supply of medium lift helicopters to the Air Corps, determine the overall helicopter resources required, civil and military, and the optimum deployment of same to cover the Irish search and rescue region. It will identify and make recommendations on the specific Air Corps resources which will have to be committed and deployed to meet those requirements. It will also consider all options – lease, extension of current contracts etcetera – for the provision of interim and urgent solutions for the overall requirements, taking into account the lead time for the delivery of new medium lift helicopters to the Air Corps. Therefore, an immediate solution to the inadequate capacity at Waterford will be the priority item to be addressed by the working group.

In relation to the suitability of the Alouette for marine search and rescue, the review of the adequacy of the marine search and rescue coverage on the east coast, which was published in June 1996 examined, among other matters, the suitability of the Alouette 111 for marine search and rescue and concluded that because of its visual contact flight conditions, daylight only restrictions and range, the Alouette 111 is unsuitable for off-shore marine emergency helicopter cover.

However, the group acknowledged the multi-role capability of the single engined Air Corps Alouette 111 helicopter was ideally suited for mountain, cliff and close-in marine search and rescue operations conducted by daylight in visual contact flight conditions. The Irish Coast Guard responsibility for search and rescue services cover, in addition to the Irish marine search and rescue region, includes inland rivers, lakes and waterways, the littoral area and cliffs of Ireland and is being extended to solution and remote area rescue.

The acquisition of medium lift helicopters for the Air Corps for search and rescue is a positive indication of the Government's commitment to the Air Corps and is welcomed by the Coast Guard. The provision of a new multi-engined marine SAR helicopter for the Air Corps with its increased endurance, capability and range will relieve the work load on the Shannon and Dublin helicopters for long range missions, provide back-up for the west coast and provide an opportunity to consider enlarging our marine search and rescue area of responsibility.

The Dáil adjourned at 9.40 p.m. until 10.30 a.m. on Thursday, 16 November 2000.