Department defends switch in contract for air sea rescue service

THE Department of the Marine has defended its decision to switch the contract for west coast air sea rescue from Irish Helicopters to a Scottish firm, amid continued controversy over the move.

The Department's assertion that the bid by Bond Helicopters of Aberdeen was significantly cheaper than that quoted by Irish Helicopters - £3.2 million a year, compared to £5 million - and that the savings would be used to improve east coast rescue, has been challenged by aviation sources.

Irish Helicopters has declined to comment, beyond admitting "surprise" at the decision, but it is understood that there was less than £500,000 in the difference. Westair Aviation and Brintel Helicopters Ltd had also tendered unsuccessfully for the contract, which was granted for 2 1/2 years by the Minister for the Marine, Mr Barrett, a week ago, with allowance for renewal.

The Department has said there will be "no diminution" in the quality of service, in spite of confirmation that a fully equipped medium range helicopter with autohover facilities for bad weather will not be on station at Shannon for the first two months of the contract next year.

A back up craft will be available.

The Department has said it does not anticipate that this will cause major difficulty in January and February. Autohover was not available for the first eight months of the Irish Helicopters contract, the Department said, and it recalls only one incident in the last 5 1/2 years where it might have made a difference.

However, Aran islanders have expressed fears. Mr Barrett has been urged by Comharchumann Forbartha Inis Mor to ensure the existing Irish Helicopters crew was re employed by the new company.

The Shannon based Irish Helicopters team has saved 444 lives off the Irish and British coasts since it took up the contract in 1991. This includes 47 medical evacuations from Inis Mor, according to the Aran island doctor and Galway Bay lifeboat medical officer, Dr Marion Broderick.

In spite of reassurances from the Scottish company, which is due to meet the 23 existing search and rescue staff at Shannon shortly, there is no guarantee that there will be a transfer of all the experienced staff. Under an EU regulation written into Irish law - the 1977 Transfer of Undertaking Protection of Employment (TUPE) directive - a new contract holder is obliged to re employ specialist staff. Details of staff and training were part of the Department of the Manne's tender, advertised in the EU Journal.

However, Bond Helicopters told The Irish Times it did not re employ staff under this directive when it took over the Marathon contract in Cork from Irish Helicopters. Those existing staff who were taken on were employed under new terms and conditions. A Bond spokesman has said it was keen to employ "as many as possible" of the Shannon search and rescue crew.

Paying tribute to Irish Helicopters, Comharchumann Forbartha Inis Mor said that since the service's introduction in 1991, it had "never been safer" to live on the Aran islands. "The people's concern is that new crews will now have to be trained, and that this will take up to two years," the coop said. The fear is that much local knowledge, and many training hours spent by volunteer lifeboat and coast and cliff rescue units with the helicopter service, could be lost as a result of the Department's decision.