I thank the Chairman for sparing me the necessity of introducing my colleagues. Mountain Rescue Ireland, MRI, is a representative as opposed to a governing organisation. My three colleagues and I are actually involved in mountain rescue. We are not officials, administrators or elder lemons. I thank the committee for inviting us to come before it.
Mountain Rescue Ireland represents 12 teams comprising approximately 365 volunteers. Those figures are easy to remember if one thinks of the number of months and days in a year. Our teams are regionally based - as members can see from the map shown in the slide currently on screen - with the exception of the Search and Rescue Dog Association, SARDA, which is a countrywide organisation. In fairness, Mountain Rescue Ireland is an all-Ireland organisation. The highest point in Cavan also happens to be the highest point in Fermanagh so if one breaks one's leg while on Culcaigh Mountain, one could be rescued by a team from either jurisdiction.
We are not paid for the work we do. To paraphrase this Taoiseach, is this because we are worthless? The answer is "No"; it is because we are priceless. However, nothing comes without a price and that is why we are attending this meeting. Before I refer to the latter at greater length, I wish to examine on our core function. The latter is mountain search and rescue and this involves removing casualties from high, rough ground which ambulances cannot reach and which helicopters might occasionally reach but not when the weather is bad. We are an absolutely integral part of the 999-112 emergency infrastructure. In response to a parliamentary question tabled in 2011, the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, Deputy Varadkar - possibly unintentionally - intimated that we might be a dispensable appendage and that the Garda, the Civil Defence and the Coast Guard are all available to deal with circumstances where people get into trouble on mountains. I dispute that assertion. The next slide provides a nice shot of Magillycuddy's Reeks at 4.40 p.m. on a January evening. On such an evening, the helicopter would only have a further 20 minutes in which to operate before it became dark. The only way to get someone off one of the peaks in the mountains in question would be by means of manpower.
If members were to visit the Reeks today, they would hear the cuckoo singing. That is one of the highlights of May in the area. The State is not like the cuckoo; it does not lay its eggs in our nest and expect us to carry all the burden. The State supports us to a degree. Our level of basic State support is €111,111. We also receive a development grant of €60,000 and a Pobal insurance grant for the same amount. The amount of the latter is shown in italics because that is not a sustainable arrangement going forward. The grant used to come from the Department of the Taoiseach and was in the amount of €75,000. It has been reduced to some degree and is not, as stated, sustainable. That fact will have to be addressed quite soon. In total, the State gives us €231,000 per year. We appreciate this funding but we need more because, as I already indicated, nothing comes without a price.
Photographs relating to mountain rescues often show people being taken down extreme vertical cliffs on ropes or being carried out in military formation across flat ground. The truth is somewhat in between. The slide on screen shows an actual rescue and, as members can see, it involves manhandling people across rough, steep slippery ground. One must have balance and be strong in order to participate in a rescue. Ours is an all-male deputation but there are females involved in mountain rescue. However, we do not have a gender balance as only 5% to 10% of our members are women.
The ultimate goal of mountain rescue is to locate the person who is injured. With the advent of smart phones, this has become somewhat easier. As a recent tragedy in Mayo illustrated, however, it can take days to find a person who dies in the mountains. If the person one is rescuing is not dead, one must stabilise him or her. All mountain rescuers have extensive first aid skills and are trained up to remote emergency care, REC, level 4, which is quite a high standard. We are not cleared to administer drugs but that may change in the coming years. Our main role is to evacuate casualties. On a cloudy day or in the dark it can take six or eight hours to carry somebody out on a stretcher. That is what we do and we are happy to do it. We do not ask payment for that and the members of the current generation of mountain rescuers are unlikely to request payment.
We are obliged to fund-raise in order to finance some of our operations. Fund-raising by means of a pub quiz - as shown on the next slide - sounds like fun but I have also stood outside church gates and on the streets of Kerry seeking money from members of the public.
It is not the best use of my time. To return to mountain rescue, it is high-level, in all senses of the word. We operate at a high level in the context of height but we also pride ourselves on being very professional. We are a community-based emergency rescue organisation. Administratively, we do not seem to be specifically owned by any one person. In effect, we are dangling. We are funded by the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport via the Irish Coast Guard and we are tasked by the Garda, which reports to the Department of Justice and Equality.
I believe the Pobal grant comes from the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government. We are also dangling between the present and the past, which is full of glorious certainties. The photograph I show is from the 1960s and those noble gentlemen are now in their 70s or 80s. Life was much simpler then. They probably had no view on technology or the idea that one could hold something in one’s hand that would allow one to communicate with the world or even argue with strangers one had never met. The future is much less certain; it is hard to know what is going to happen, but we do know that Ireland is positioning itself as an adventure destination for walking and climbing. We have the Wild Atlantic Way, which is probably tarmac-based, but it gives a flavour of how Ireland is positioning itself. Walkers bring €500 million per annum into the economy - twice the amount brought in by fishing and golf combined. These people bring in a lot of money. They come from abroad and they expect the rescue infrastructure to be on a par with their home countries – Germany, France or wherever. In the past 12 months I have dealt with two casualties from Japan and one from Korea. We are dealing with a truly international market.
Some people will speculate that the future is all about technology. The photograph of the helicopter that members can see was taken very late in the evening. It is leaving the scene because it is dark. Technology will appear and it will be very welcome, but at that time of night it disappears. The Air Corps has night-flying capacity, but access to the Air Corps at the moment seems to be caught up to some degree in red tape. In fairness, the Coast Guard helicopter gives sterling support, but often it is not there. Sometimes we have a combined operation in which it lifts us up under the clouds; we go up and get the casualty and bring him or her down and then he or she is airlifted out. It is technology with a big "T" and muscle with a small "m". But there are days when all one has is skilled muscle. In white-out conditions in winter, helicopters do not go to the top of mountains, and nobody other than skilled mountaineers can do the job. The non-mountaineering fraternity will not be trained. That is simply not credible and will not happen.
A steady upward climb in activity is evident. In 2009, there was extensive flooding late in the year which then generated frost and snow. In 2010, we had two winters. Mountain rescue teams give humanitarian support within their own communities when the weather is particularly severe. Ignoring those years, one sees a steady upward climb in activity.
Last year the State got a total of 20 years from the 365 volunteers. That is 20 years of unpaid work. For each volunteer that breaks down to two and a half weeks. Roughly speaking, that is a week on rescue, a week on training and half a week on fund-raising. I wish to dwell on fund-raising. Half a week on fund-raising is 20 working hours. Of the 20 working hours one spends fund-raising, four and a half are for the Revenue Commissioners, because if one buys an item of rescue equipment in Ireland for terrestrial or land-based rescue, VAT applies at 23%. If it is for water-based rescue, VAT does not apply. It is seriously important to achieve equity. We are all at sea in that respect. We need parity of esteem. We need VAT reform. I do not know whether it is a domestic decision or a European decision. I am a mountain rescuer; I am not an expert on tax or governing a country.
The other really important issue is insurance. That is probably the one thing that is likely to bring down the voluntary house of cards. Insurance, nationally, comes in at €99,949.99, which is not much less than €100,000. We get a grant from Pobal of €60,000, which is unsustainable. Teams have to come up with the balance, which is a lot of money. The insurance covers team members should they suffer an injury and it is also liability insurance should we be sued by somebody we have rescued. To my knowledge, the latter scenario has never happened.
The final necessity is capital funding. The Minister has intimated that capital funding might be available. Capital funding in the context of mountain rescue is what we are looking at. We are looking at vehicles - not necessarily Land Rovers, but certainly vehicles of that ilk - and we are looking at bases. Not all teams have bases. South Eastern Mountain Rescue Association, SEMRA, recently fitted out a base in Clonmel that I think it got from the local authority, but the fitting-out costs incurred VAT of €18,500. One hand giveth and the other hand taketh away.
I do not believe there is a crock of gold at the end of the rainbow, but I would like to think there is silver - certainly a silver lining - and I would like to think the silver lining would be evident in the immediate future. It is said that eaten bread is soon forgotten, but promised bread never really arrives either. One positive note is that the International Commission for Alpine Rescue will hold its global international conference in Killarney. This year the event is at Lake Tahoe in the United States. In fairness, Fáilte Ireland has given us enormous assistance. It is a feather in the country’s cap and a feather in the cap of Mountain Rescue Ireland, MRI. We look forward to the conference. I understand the committee will have a representative of Fáilte Ireland before it this afternoon and members might be able to further explore the concept of Ireland as an adventure destination and the expectations that go with that. My final slide summarises everything I have said. The stakeholders must support the pyramid. Committee members are the stakeholders. On that note, I invite questions.