merrion street

Thursday 2

February 2012

A major international conference on search & rescue will take place later this year in Killiney, Co. Dublin which is being organised by the Irish Coast Guard in partnership with the UK-based Sheppard Group.

 The Search & Rescue 2012 conference on March 15

and 16

will bring Coast Guard representatives from across Europe and the US, along with a range of other search & rescue experts. More than 200 delegates are expected to attend.

One of the keynote presentations will be from the Italian Coast Guard, which is attending in order to discuss the recent tragic incident of the

.

This is the first time that the conference has been held in Ireland. Dublin was chosen as a venue to mark the fact that Ireland is heading up the European Union Heads of Coast Guard. The Director of the Irish Coast Guards, Chris Reynolds, is currently chairing the network.

Coast guard chiefs from a number of countries will attend the conference including the US, UK and Sweden. All four Coast Guard helicopters will be on hand to give a search & rescue demonstration at an event in Weston Airport as part of the conference.

Irish Coast Guards director Chris Reynolds has been asked specifically to prepare the ground for a permanent European Union Heads of Coast Guard Secretariat, manned by Coast Guard Officers from Member States, the EU Commission and various agencies. This Secretariat currently meets monthly in Dublin with the plenary Conference planned for Dublin Castle in August.

Earlier this year Minister for Transport, Tourism & Sport Leo Varadkar confirmed that funding for the Irish Coast Guard and RNLI would be protected in 2012, and that capital funding has been allocated to refresh the Coast Guard’s fleet over the next couple of years.

Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport Press Office Tel: (01) 604 1076 / (01) 604 1090.