The Irish Coast Guard’s Dun Laoghaire unit has been chosen to pilot drone operations covering the East sector.

Training is set to commence early in the new year using DroneSAR, a software platform developed by a Donegal-based team to employ commercially available drones as part of search and rescue missions.

Once this training has been completed, the coastguard crew say they will be available to assist with missing person searches.

The news comes just months after the UK’s Maritime and Coastguard Agency announced its own 12-month drone trial to support its search and rescue actions on the Essex coast.