One of Clare’s Independent TD’s says the Department of Transport has ‘work to do’ to ensure volunteers are confident within any new setup of the Doolin unit of the Irish Coast Guard.
It’s after the Oireachtas Transport Committee this week heard criticism about the handling of a mediation process into resignations from the North Clare unit last year.
The Committee this week heard from Coast Guard volunteers, among them long serving members of the former Doolin unit.
A report from independent mediator Kieran Mulvey, published late last year, advised that ‘certain relationships’ within the unit had irretrievably broken down and the unit should be permanently stood down as a result.
This mediation process was criticised this week for not being long enough or detailed enough in the eyes of some of the unit’s former members.
The Doolin unit’s been reconstituted on an interim basis since early March, with the process of permanent recruitment to the unit now understood to be underway.
Members of the former North Clare section of the Irish Coast Guard say they’re ‘willing and able’ to join this newly assembled unit in the near future.
Bernard Lucas of the Irish Coast Guard Volunteers Representative Association says the members who previously resigned from duty ‘are more than willing’ to be considered for roles in the new unit.
It’s prompted calls from one of Clare’s Independent TDs for the Department of Transport to undertake work to ensure volunteers are confident and secure in their work.
Minister of State Hildegarde Naughton this week informed the Oireachtas the Department is ‘fully engaged’ in the recruitment process for the new Doolin unit, along with the national Coast Guard body.
However, Scariff-based Independent Deputy Michael McNamara says an improvement on the current situation of two representative bodies for the sector needs to be found.
