Irish Coast Guard volunteers who were dismissed or left are seeking a meeting with the new management team, which has been charged with conducting a wide-ranging review of the State service.
As The Sunday Independent reports, the review of “all aspects” of the Irish Coast Guard, including “culture, governance, strategy, structure and roles”, has been commissioned by Minister of State for Transport Jack Chambers.
He has charged his department’s new assistant secretary-general Joanna Cullen with “driving” and “delivering” a “transformation programme”, following the review, which would “renew and refresh” the service.
Micheál O’Toole, who was formerly an Irish Coast Guard operations manager, has been appointed as director to replace acting director Eugene Clonan.
The Irish Coast Guard Volunteers Representative Association Irish Coast Guard Volunteers Representative Association (ICGVRA) says it has welcomed the move, and is seeking an urgent meeting with both O’Toole and Cullen in a spirit of “seeking a resolution”.
The association, representing both serving and former volunteers with the Irish Coast Guard, was formed in Clare in late 2021, following a commemoration for late ICG volunteer Caitriona Lucas who lost her life during a search in September 2016.
The investigation into Ms Lucas’s death was critical of aspects of Irish Coast Guard management.
Coast Guard management weaknesses were also highlighted in the subsequent investigation into the Rescue 116 helicopter crash, which claimed the lives of Capt Dara Fitzpatrick, Capt Mark Duffy and winch crew Ciarán Smith and Paul Ormsby off north Mayo in March 2017.
ICGVRA chair John O’Mahony, who had volunteered for 25 years, says his group involves both serving members, experienced rescue personnel who were dismissed “without adequate notice or recourse to appeal”, and members who resigned. Ms Lucas’s husband Bernard is vice-chair of the group.
Last May, an Oireachtas committee heard that morale among volunteers in the Irish Coast Guard is currently at an "all-time low", in part due to increasing "red tape" and the handling of disciplinary proceedings against members.
Read The Sunday Independent here