It is a great honour for me to represent my organisation. I thank the joint committee for giving me that opportunity.
I live in Kilkenny city, although I am originally from Dungarvan, County Waterford. I am married and have three adult children. I originally worked in the pharmacy sector in Dublin in the 1970s, from where I moved to the General Medical Services Payments Board. After marriage, I moved to Kilkenny. In the 1970s as there was no provision for moving between semi-State bodies, I went back to work in the retail sector. My husband and I opened our own retail business in Kilkenny in 1980 and I continue to work in that business with him, in which I work at both retail and administrative level.
Some 25 years ago I became a voluntary member of Kilkenny Water Safety and qualified as an instructor. I was elected to its water safety committee and quickly became an ardent supporter of its work at local level, in promoting a water safety message by teaching swimming and lifesaving techniques on a weekly basis in our local pool and during our summer camp weeks on the Nore and the Barrow in rural areas. I continue to do this work. I became increasingly involved in national courses and passionate about the broader message of Irish Water Safety to all members of the public.
In 1998 I was appointed to the rescue commission of Irish Water Safety. In 1999 I was elected by our members to the national Irish Water Safety committee under the National Safety Council. In 2000 I was elected to the newly established council of Irish Water Safety and re-elected in 2003, 2006 and 2011. During that period I chaired several commissions of the organisation, including rescue, swimming, lifesaving and area committees. I qualified as an international surf referee in lifesaving in sport in 2003 and I am an international lifesaving senior risk assessor tutor. I was the first female in Europe to attain that qualification. This experience gives me a broad overview of the organisation. I was appointed chairman of Irish Water Safety by the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government, Deputy Hogan, in November 2011.
I would like to tell the committee about the organisation and my vision and ambition for the term of the new council. Irish Water Safety is an independent voluntary body established to promote water safety in Ireland. We educate people in water safety best practices. We teach swimming and lifesaving techniques nationwide to members of the general public. We develop public awareness campaigns to promote necessary attitudes, behaviours and rescue skills in order to prevent drowning and water-related accidents. Through education and training, we strive to promote a stronger water safety ethos and culture in order that everybody can safely use and enjoy our aquatic environment.
Irish Water Safety was established in 1945 under the auspices of the Irish Red Cross and formed into the Irish Water Safety Association by statute in 1971. The association was brought in under the National Safety Council in 1987 and was re-established as Irish Water Safety by statutory instrument in 2000. We attained registered charity status three years ago and we receive sponsorship and sponsorship in kind. We have local committees in every county in Ireland and two special dedicated committees in the Garda training college and in the Defence Forces in The Curragh.
We are linked in to the local authorities through these local area committees. Each local authority has a dedicated water safety development officer with specific duties in the promotion of water safety. Through this network of committees we have built up our biggest asset as an organisation which is our corps of voluntary members who work on weekly programmes, delivering training in swimming, lifesaving, water confidence and basic life support in their local communities and the monetary value of which is significant. We are the only body teaching swimming in open water during our summer weeks. Membership was approximately 3,000 in 2011. We train and qualify lifeguards and this enables both the local authorities and private establishments to employ lifeguards who are trained to international best practice as well as providing our young people with a qualification that is internationally recognised. At national level our work is very diverse as we target specific groups of the population who are at risk of drowning. For example, on 28 April, the Minister, Deputy Hogan, will launch a new national water safety awareness prospectus, targeting those employed to work in or near water. This will be the establishment of a new national standard for this group of people.
We support our volunteers by developing our programmes to international best practice and producing courses and resource material to deliver these programmes. Our volunteers carry out risk assessments on bathing areas and waterways nationwide that may pose a particular risk to the public. We advise on public rescue equipment, signage, access and other necessary facilities. We offer this service free of charge to local authorities. An Taisce has accepted this standard to be a condition of assignment of its annual blue flag awards.
This risk assessment standard was developed by Irish Water Safety and through our international representation at the European lifesaving federation, this model is now being used throughout Europe. We are represented on the board of the European lifesaving federation, ILSE, and also on several of its commissions. Through this representation we ensure that IWS develops and progresses best international practice in all our work and courses. It ensures the IWS standards often lead the way in the field and act as a template for other lifesaving organisations across Europe.
Irish Water Safety works with other national Government agencies and NGOs involved in marine safety and our members sit on committees with the Irish Coast Guard, the Naval Service, RNLI, Waterways Ireland, Irish Surfing Association, BIM and many others. We work with the Department of Education and Skills and in 2003 our primary aquatic water safety programme was accepted by the Department as part of the school curriculum. This programme is specifically tailored for primary school pupils and is exclusive to primary schools. Pupils are certified with nationally recognised awards from our programme as recommended by the Department of Education and Skills. Aquatics is a component part of the physical education strand of the primary school curriculum. These awards consist of the theory of personal safety around water, safe swimming, safety on the farm, safety on open water, etc. Swimming pool-based instructions can be taught by local swimming-pool teachers. This programme ensures that even if children do not have access to swimming lessons, they are still provided with a water safety awareness programme in the classroom. Irish Water Safety fund-raising allows us to employ an educational development officer to engage with the schools and to roll out this programme.
Irish Water Safety trains and examines rescue boat crews who work with the community inshore rescue services and the coast guard service. We work with both local and national media to help build awareness and to target the seasonal hazards that may occur.
