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THE COMMUNITY OF Clogherhead in Co Louth is set to welcome the latest RNLI lifeboat to be based in Ireland to their town this Sunday.
The Michael O’Brien Shannon class lifeboat, which has been named after an Irish lifeboat volunteer, is due to arrive at Clogherhead at 1.31pm.
The lifeboat is the latest in a long line of search and rescue boats provided by the RNLI to Clogherhead over the past 120 years.
The boat and its launching equipment represents a multi-million euro investment at the station. It also sees the station move from a 15-knot lifeboat to a 25-knot one, cutting vital minutes off the time it takes for the lifeboat to reach a casualty.
A significant proportion of the funding for the lifeboat has been provided through a legacy by a Wexford farmer Henry Tomkins, who was a lifelong supporter of the RNLI.
Tomkins stipulated that a lifeboat be named for his friend, the former Arklow RNLI Coxswain, Michael O’Brien.
The Shannon was designed by Derry man Peter Eyre who as child was rescued by Lough Swilly RNLI in Donegal.
The arrival of the station’s new Shannon lifeboat on Sunday will take place in front of the beach beside the lifeboat station.
It will be the first time in Ireland that the RNLI will use a SLARS (Shannon Launch and Recovery System) to launch and recover a lifeboat in Ireland. The SLARS acts as a mobile slipway for the lifeboat, which can be driven directly onto the beach for recovery.
“We want the people of Clogherhead and the surrounding areas to come to welcome the new lifeboat home. The station has been preparing for this day for a long time and there is huge excitement for it,” Clogherhead RNLI Coxswain Tomás Whelahan said.
“The past few weeks and months have been spent in preparation and training by all the crew and shore crew, to receive this incredible piece of kit from the RNLI. It is the most technologically advanced lifeboat in the fleet, and it will proudly serve the east coast for many years to come,” he said.
We are incredibly honoured to receive it and we are grateful to our donor Henry Tomkins and to the local communities, who by their generosity, have made this day possible. We hope to bring many loved ones safely home in this new lifeboat.
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Is this a non story ?
@Hector Son: very much so. Spent 3 million on flights, probably got paid 10 million for flights
Example number 9007 of the FFG policy of putting taxpayers money in the hands of private companies.
@Mogh Roith: while the Air Corps does need better transport aircraft, a single airliner of sufficient size to carry a batallion rotation of a few hundred troops with all the gear would cost €150-200 million. That doesn’t include fuel or maintenance or storage or depreciation or the additional pilot officers needed to be attested and trained on the type. The cost of charter aircraft may go into commercial operations, yes, but €3 million over 5 years is a damn sight better value to the taxpayer than a white elephant airliner. And make no mistake, given that it might be filled 4 to 6 times a year, a white elephant is exactly what it would be.
@Mogh Roith: Of course purchasing, maintaining and flying aircraft costs nothing if the state does it?
@Eoin Roche: This logic doesn’t suit, better to have a nonsense FFG rant!
@Mogh Roith: Cheap or would you rather spend more money buying a plane? Sinn Fein Economics
@Mogh Roith: Where does the taxpayers money come from in the first place?
@Eoin Roche: I wonder who they charter from now. It used to be Aer Lingus and they flew 747s to the Lebanon. I think if we were going to invest then sea rescue helicopters and a medical jet might be options and both could be used to supplement the ambulance services when needed. We don’t really need a Galaxy C5 and Hercules might have to make a few runs sometimes. I do appreciate that the Air Corps may not have all the latest up to date jet fighters and interceptors and transporters but I think we have better things to spend our tax payers money on.
@Mogh Roith: 3 millions over 5 years. How much do you think it would cost buy and maintain an aircraft big enough to travel to all these countries?
@Eoin Roche: Also, 2.7m is not 3m. That’s some heavy-handed rounding up there for no particular reason.
@Dylan Cotter: and over 5 years… so average of 540K a year…. this is very much something the Dept of Defence did right. That’s a pretty good deal overall.
@Eoin Roche: Yeah but they need to justify all the Officer jobs
Is it cheaper than purchasing and maintenance on an aircraft?
@Peter: vastly.
@Peter: very much so, especially if it will only be used a few times a year. When not in use or maintenance, it will just sit there losing value and storage of aircraft in this country is usually not good for the airframe leading to issues further down rhe line.
This works out at €50k a month. That’s considered a lot less than owning and maintaining its own aircraft. This is actually a good thing.
Shocker, transport costs money. Who would’ve thought
@Sean McCarthy: Irish’s Air Corps already spending the same money & more on legal fees & WRC settlements
Here’s an open letter I wrote to Dr Berry last year seeking his help reducing suffering and saving lives of #IrishAirCorps personnel injured by unprotected exposure to toxic workplace chemicals. I have recorded the untimely deaths of 96 colleagues average age of death 52 years.
Actually below is an open letter from 2021 asking why he didn’t even bother to respond to my 2020 letter.
Dr Berry has already announced his intention to resign at the next election and scurry back to the Defence Forces medical corps with yet another pension. I cannot see what he achieved since he left the defence forces except skip the vaccine queue. Empty slow vacuous waffle is all he delivered.
@Gavin Tobin: Any chance you’d stop hijacking every article on defence matters with this? We’ve read it a hundred times, nobody here can do anything about it and it really has nothing to do with the matter at hand. If you believe you have a case, take a sample, get some legal Counsel and sue the State.
@Gavin Tobin: pension abatement act Gavin prevents more than one state pension been paid . Been like this since 2004 . But don’t let the facts get in the way . :-)
@Eoin Roche: If you read my link it is very relevant to the individual in the article. I’ve sued all the way to the Supreme Court and won. State ignored the win…do keeping up.
@Philip Grant:Are you saying if Berry does do a full Dail term he won’t get an additional TD pension when he reaches 65 in addition to his DF pension?
€3 million isn’t bad! People don’t know the true costs of operating an A330 for example would be a lot lot more , which they’d then complain about as it would sit there half the time unused! I’m surprised it’s only €3 mil tbh
Why do tax payers pay for an army at all? We don’t have the capacity to defend ourselves against the English, French, German, polish, Russian, Ukrainian armies invasion( which they won’t) Close it all down, use the money for purposeful important requirements. Don’t but more useless equipment that will never be used.
@Radioska: We need an defense army to protect the government if we ever have a revolution. That’s about it.
@brendan o connell: I think you will find that the Irish army are there to support the gardai when required and thereby defend the state, that is you and I and every other person living in this island. They have also provided military support at the border and perform various roles in defending our maritime economic zone and enforcing fishing patrols as well as preventing smuggling by sea. The Irish army also performs an important international role as we are seen as being neutral and fair to both sides in our peace keeping roles. This is just a taster of the various rolls performed by our defence forces on top or protecting our democracy in the event of a revolution.
3 million is sounds like good value, compared with buying a military plane.
3 million over 5 years is way cheaper than running a military transport aircraft.
The most telling part of this story was that it “was released to Cathal Berry on behalf of Simon Coveney”.
“Independent” TD as in independent FG TD
MÍCHEÁL is in election mode
I would think that the bill would go to the UN eventually…..
Since when is 5 years a benchmark for measuring data? 600k per annum sounds a reasonable amount for flying troops to and from the places they are needed. The Journal trying to make something out of nothing again . Petty alarmist journalism
The likes of the US Milatary also use commercial airlines like OMNI Air etc to transport large amount of troops, I’m not sure on what the operating costs these days are for a wide body aircraft but 20 yrs ago it cost my aul crowd $100k a day for an MD11 operation.
The Aer Corp could do with something like the A400M,Its the exact aircraft the ARW got a lift on to KBL, The aircraft can be configured for 160 troops or medivac or carry a payload if 37000 kgs and air ro air refueling capability.
@Dave Byrne: so are they also to buy an air to air refueler?
@Gavin Minihane: The aircraft has the capability of being refueled in the air or can be used to refuel other aircraft just one of its capabilities.
@Dave Byrne: Can fuel and be fuelled mid-air. Implying it could refuel itself mid-air. Might be onto something there with the fuel version of perpetual motion. Similar to the Nelson Muntz solution to world hunger.
@Chris Linehan: A few years ago the USAF based at one of their UK bases,Was tasked to cover a medivac in the middle of the North Atlantic ocean the range was to long for the coast gaurd SAR helicopter.
They used 2 black hawk choppers and a KC-130 for the mission, The KC-130 would fuel both the choppers and if need be could be refuelled by another aircraft midair.
Seems reasonable value.
€200 million for a C17. 3 million over 5 years seems like good business to me.
Cost of buying them firstly,Then there is the maintenance cost. There are Irish troops in Mali. Why? Mali is a French created mess.
Going by Creditsafe Seraph Aviation Group was established in 2016, doesn’t appear to have any listed directors, doesn’t have any assets nor credit rating? WTF?
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