THE Irish Coast Guard, which can trace its roots to 1822, has celebrated 200 years of lifesaving with a special ceremony attended by Ministers Hildegarde Naughton and Eamon Ryan (pictured). A special commemorative proof-of-service wreck token will be awarded to 950 volunteers nationwide in recognition of their valued service. Staff and volunteers from 44 Coast Guard units across Ireland provide a national maritime search and rescue service and a maritime casualty and pollution response service.
Together, they respond to almost 3,000 call outs and save on average 400 lives a year. Of the call outs, approximately half are maritime incidents, a quarter are inland search and rescue and another quarter involve assisting the National Ambulance Service. Modern volunteer Coast Guard units provide a combination of rescue boat, cliff rescue, shoreline search capabilities, and emergency community support in conjunction with the other emergency services.
Development in the use of small unmanned aircraft systems (drones) provide coast guard units with an enhanced search capability while coast guard helicopters provide 24/7 services out of four bases, at Dublin, Waterford, Shannon and Sligo.
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