Vol. 574 No. 1
138 Mr. Quinn asked the Minister for Communications, Marine and Natural Resources if his attention has been drawn to the concern expressed by the Irish Mountain Rescue Association regarding the threat by the Irish Coastguard to cut its funding in a dispute over independence and assessment procedures; the steps he proposes to take to resolve this dispute; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [26278/03]
Officials of the Coastguard are engaged in discussions with representatives of the mountain and cave rescue organisations concerning the implementation of new administrative procedures aimed at providing greater quality assurance and financial accountability in regard to the expenditure of public funding. Responsibility for the national committee for mountain and cave rescue was transferred from the then Department of the Environment and Local Government to the Coastguard in 2002. The Coastguard is seeking to implement an appropriate auditing process of the organisations similar to the well established procedures in place in regard to the community inshore rescue service. The auditing process entails the coastguard undertaking an annual independent quality assurance assessment relating to safety, effectiveness, equipment, training, management, response times and operational procedures. The different elements of the audit are interrelated and a broad common sense approach is adopted. The quality assurance procedures have been put in place to improve the safety of the rescue teams themselves and the general public who rely on them and they provide a verifiable audit trail to account for public moneys being dispersed.
I understand that most of the issues in question have been agreed and I am hopeful that agreement will be reached on the outstanding matters shortly. I also understand that the organisations have already received their current funding allocations for 2003 and that discussions with the organisations regarding capital expenditure are ongoing.
Since responsibility for the national committee for mountain and cave rescue was transferred to my Department last year, a number of other important measures have been put in place, including the funding available to the organisations has been increased by 75% to €175,000 in 2003 and the grant scheme has been extended to include capital expenditure, which will assist mountain and cave rescue teams with new or replacement capital purchases such as rescue vehicles or buildings and a simplified vouchering mechanism has been established to facilitate the early draw down of public funding by the organisations.
