#LIGHTHOUSES - Making strides in renewable energy and working in harmony with the country's marine resources are top of the agenda for the Commissioners of Irish Lights (CIL) under new chief executive Yvonne Shields.
Though its main focus will remain safety at sea through its maintenance of Ireland's coastal network of lighthouses, buoys and shipping aids, Shields tells Lorna Siggins in today's Irish Times that the agency must transform in order to pay its own way - by branching out into data and information provision for fish farms and offshore wind farms, among other services.
The 'Twitter buoy' installed in Galway for the Volvo Ocean Race finale, as previously reported on Afloat.ie, is one response to the changing face of navigation, "using next generation technologies to communicate with sea goers and navigators around our coasts".
Shields' background in the Marine Institute matches her own personal interest in the economic potential of Ireland's marine sector.
“We have 10 times our land mass out there, but it only fuels 1 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP),” she says. “There’s no reason this couldn’t increase to 5 per cent and further."
Another aspect of the agency's work is co-operation with local stakeholders around the coast, such as with the RPSB on a puffin sanctuary on Rathlin Island, and a new attitude towards exploiting Ireland's lighthouse assets as tourism destinations.
The Irish Times has much more on the story HERE.
