Government must scrap plans to downgrade marine rescue service
Issued : Monday 15 March, 2010
I was shocked to hear today that the Government has plans to reduce to a daylight-only operation, the marine search and rescue service at Waterford Regional Airport.
Over the last two years we have seen the government embark on one crude cost-cutting exercise after another, but this is a step too far, and the people of Waterford and the South East will simply not stand for it
Effectively the Dept of Transport is saying that the safety of fishermen in other parts of the country is more important than that of fishermen in the South East.
There is no justification for this, and I demand that the Government scrap this unfair and unreasonable plan. I will be raising this most serious matter in the Dail next week.
This Government somehow believes that people in the South East will take any type of ill-treatment, and not retaliate come a general election. This region deserves it fair share, just as any other region does, and the days of short-changing the South East must end forthwith.
