Valentia campaigns to protect coastguard
Valentia Island’s Culloo Rock
By Anne Lucey
Monday, August 06, 2012
Renewed plans to close the Valentia Coast Guard Station in Co Kerry and shift its operations to Dublin are being stoutly resisted.
The threat to the station, one of the busiest in the country, has come as a shock to south Kerry, which believed a similar plan to axe Valentia under the previous government had been seen off.
Hundreds of thousands of euro worth of new radio and communications equipment are to be installed next month in the island station, and a new helipad is also on the cards. The station’s main operations room is being upgraded and other rooms have been prepared to host the equipment for a new automated service.
Furthermore, Kerry County Council has spent €150,000 upgrading the road to the only manned Coast Guard station in the south west.
The plans, revealed in July after a Government cost cutting report, have come as a surprise after a similar threat to close the rural Coast Guard stations at Malin in Co Donegal and Valentia under the previous administration were shelved after political pressure from then back bench TDs.
At the time, former ceann comhairle John O’Donoghue, then the local Fianna Fáil TD, whose house overlooks the island, was embarrassed at the threat. A huge lobby was set in motion by his party colleague, Senator Mark Daly.
The Kenmare senator is again sounding warning bells, this time from the opposition. He says senior sources in the Coast Guard have warned Valentia and Malin are both to close.
Mr Daly is hoping to have senior Coast Guard personnel appear before the Oireachtas Transport and Communications Committee to explain the rationale for the closures.
Yesterday, Timothy Lyne, spokesman for the island’s Save our Station action group said: “The decision was made four years ago to keep the station. There is no good reason to close it.”
Each year, Valentia, with its 16 staff, handles about 150 — two-thirds — of the major search and rescue events on this island.
It also liaises with the international coastguard.
As well as an acknowledged bank of expertise, the station’s jobs are felt to be vital to the island’s economy.
Transport Minister Leo Varadkar has confirmed an action plan is being prepared and tough decisions will have to be made in October.
