Coast Guard is hailed for ‘amazing work’

Members of Westport-Belmullet Municipal District were welcomed to the new state-of-the-art Westport Coast Guard Station last Monday for their monthly meeting.

The station is located at Westport Quay and offers stunning views over Clew Bay as well as Croagh Patrick.

Expressing appreciation for the venue, Cllr John O’Malley described it as “a fabulous facility that will stand the test of time”.

Officer-in-charge Noel Brett said it was a pleasure to welcome the members to the building, adding that the facility "would not be here" had Mayo County Council not donated the site. He went on to deliver a presentation on the Westport unit of the Irish Coast Guard, explaining that it is one of 44 teams nationwide with the service under the remit of the Department of Transport. Highlighting that all workers are volunteers, he told the forum: “We have this station in Westport and then flank stations in Achill, Ballyglass, Belmullet, Killala and Cleggan."

Mr Brett said there were 27 volunteers in the Westport station, including engineers, teachers, a GP, mechanics, farmers and staff from Abbvie. He said the service covers from Killary Harbour to North Mayo as well as Inishturk and Clare Island. However, half of the calls to the unit relate to inland areas.

"It is usually for missing persons, who may have gone absent from hospitals or old people’s homes or wherever a cardiac patient might need to be lifted from.” 

He noted that female membership has grown to the point where the unit is now able to field a whole rescue team of highly trained women.

Being fully funded by the Department, he welcomed the fact that all equipment is provided for, adding that with a lot of work taking place in the maritime domain, all staff are trained for search and rescue and they support the principal blue light response agencies as well as the local authority.

Running a school’s programme and safety training is also a main part of the unit’s brief, he said, with members travelling far and wide to teach young and old the various elements of land and water safety.

He singled out Mayo Mountain Rescue as one of the most professional and well organised groups the service works in partnership with, and also paid tribute to An Garda Síochána and Mayo Fire Service, as well as the Civil Defence and the RNLI, particularly in Achill and Ballyglass, as well as additional service links at Clifden. 

“It is so great to have such quality people to work with and we go wherever we’re needed.” 

He added that the eight-metre rib belonging to the Westport unit can carry a crew of six to Clare Island in just 20 minutes, all thanks to the floating pontoon provided by the council that saves 16 minutes on launch time.

Other resources include drones at Cleggan and Belmullet that employ heat-seeking technology to find people in bogland or water, while the drones can also send live footage back. 

“This saves so much time, they can fly two kilometres out to sea and just do amazing work.” 

Finally, he paid tribute to Mayo County Council staff, including management and outdoor personnel, who he said always respond very quickly to calls, while he also paid special tribute to Westport Fire Unit, led by station officer Brendan Kilcoyne, saying the team is “so good to work with". 

Cllr Sean Carey congratulated the service on the great work it does, adding that in his own parish he knows three generations of families that have worked as volunteers at the Ballyglass Coast Guard Station. He added that the operation was looking for a permanent home “as the one there is outdated” and expressed the hope that they too could enjoy a new facility in the near future.

Cllr Chris Maxwell said the volunteers are “a fabulous team for all the work they do”. He noted that a bridge on the road to the Mayo Mountain Rescue base is in a dangerous state of disrepair and called for urgent remedial work to ensure no rescue operation is stymied along the route.

Cllr Paul McNamara added that Achill was so lucky to have its own Coast Guard station, acknowledging the great service provided by volunteers there, including in relation to the recent cave rescue.

“The volunteers give so much time and effort, and with five Blue Flag beaches in Achill, the amount of people who come to visit is huge and just to know the station is there means a lot, so thanks for all the good work you do.” 

Cllr Peter Flynn thanked all emergency services and volunteers for the work they do and asked whether there was any movement on plans to develop Westport harbour. Mr Brett supported this call, saying that any action that could be taken to dredge the harbour would be most welcome, as it would allow more tourism in and make the harbour usable 24 hours a day, rather than the situation that applies now where “at certain times we can’t launch due to the water being so low".

• Published as part of the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme.