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THE WEST COAST of Ireland has a diminished Coast Guard helicopter service as the Shannon based station can no longer provide nighttime rescue cover.
The issue is due to continuing delays in a transition to a new contractor for the search and rescue service.
This means that another base in Ireland will have to pick up the rescue mission within Shannon’s area of responsibility. If another Irish crew is not available, UK based services will have to be requested.
The Coast Guard operates four bases across Ireland in Sligo, Shannon, Waterford and Dublin.
The ongoing issues with the change of the private contractor in charge of Ireland’s Coast Guard search and rescue service also means that the Sligo base’s transition from the old contract has been delayed.
The Journal has learned that currently only the Sligo base can perform night time rescue operations from the west coast as Shannon is not available for rescues from 8pm to 8am.
Sources with knowledge of the issue said this is causing significant frustrations among Coast Guard members and have voiced concern that the service is degraded at present.
The State has signed a €670m deal with Bristow Helicopters to run the country’s airbourne rescue service. They won in a competition which included the former operators CHC Helicopter and the Irish Air Corps.
Stations are due to transition into their new contracts over the coming months – this means that they will change from CHC management to Bristow.
That transition has now been delayed for a variety of operational issues – not least that the crews are expected to operate a new helicopter variant and require on the job training.
Shannon has fully transitioned to the new type of craft but while the crew is carrying out training missions both during the day and night, they are not permitted to respond to emergencies at nighttime until all the training has been concluded.
Sources who spoke to The Journal said there had been other issues with the transition.
One problem that was previously identified around radio relay for long distance missions – Bristow is providing a fixed wing aircraft to do that. It is not available at present and has been spotted doing training flights in the UK.
When the helicopter goes far out to sea it moves out of the range of its communications back home – to combat that issue a helicopter or aircraft can assist them by being high enough above the rescuers to be able to bounce the radio messages back to land.
A social media page linked to the Rescue 118 crew, which is the Sligo base, has called for more information about the current situation. It regularly posts updates about completed missions.
“The crew of Rescue 118, based in Sligo Airport, are seeking information on when they will transfer from CHC Ireland to Bristow Ireland. The crew of Shannon based Rescue 115 transferred over in December after a number of delays and now only provide a 08:00 – 20:00 day only service.
“Sligo is now facing those same delays and uncertainty as to when and what service will be provided by Bristow Ireland,” the post stated.
A Department of Transport spokeswoman has said that the transition is being conducted with the safety of air crew in mind and that it will not be rushed to meet deadlines.
“At all times the transition process has operational safety as its overarching priority,” the statement said.
The Department said it is monitoring the ongoing engagement between the two providers particularly around finalising the dates for the completion of the transition.
“The Department will not allow risks to be taken in a rush to meet contractual deadlines.
“To reiterate, safety of crew is the overarching priority. If the Department recognises the need to revise transition dates to ensure overall safety and will do so without hesitation and expects full cooperation of both contractors to facilitate revised transition timelines,” the spokeswoman said.
The Department said that Bristow commenced operations in Shannon on 8 December 2024 and it is anticipated, according to the spokeswoman, that a 24 hour service will be available from later this month.
“Between the two contracted Search and Rescue operators – CHCI and Bristow Ireland – there is sufficient capacity, expertise, and resources to maintain safe SAR operations on a 24/7 basis across the Irish Search and Rescue Region,” she added.
The department has said that the operation of four bases allows for full coverage if one of those goes offline.
“Furthermore, the Marine Rescue Coordination Centres in Dublin, Valentia and Malin are fully integrated and similarly operate on a national, as opposed to local or regional basis.
“The resilience of the four-base strategy has been well proven by CHC the outgoing service provider, in enabling them to fulfil their contractual obligations during the past 13 years,” the spokeswoman added.
The Journal reported in November that technicians working on the Coast Guard helicopter fleet voted overwhelmingly in a survey that they would consider industrial action.
It is understood that 87% of those who participated in the survey said that they would favour industrial action. The vote is not a vote for strike action as such but instead is a survey of members.
Technicians or techcrew are helicopter maintainers and other skilled members of the teams that maintain the aircraft. They also include people who operate rescue hoists and other aircraft systems.
With additional reporting by Pat Flynn.
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