ESB chairman Tadhg O'Donoghue has disputed the Irish Coast Guard's case for replacing its coast radio stations at Valentia island, Co Kerry and Malin, Co Donegal.
Mr O'Donoghue, who is from Valentia island, said a "false argument" was being made by the Irish Coast Guard and Maritime Administration (ICGMA) in relation to difficulties with power supplies at the two locations.
The ICGMA claims in relation to inadequate telecommunications infrastructure at the two bases has also been challenged by Eircom in a letter sent to Minister for Transport Noel Dempsey.
A ministerial brief on the changes, which has been released to coast radio station union representatives, says the need to make decisions in relation to maritime safety are "being driven by technological issues".
The ministerial brief prepared by the ICGMA for Mr Dempsey and his secretary general says that much of the communications infrastructure for search and rescue is "old and in urgent need of replacement" and says that "any delay in this process could leave us vulnerable to catastrophic failure in the system".
In recommending a €2 million investment plan for "core equipment", it makes the case for a new centre near an "urban location" on the west coast, and relocation of its Dublin base at Leeson Lane to Drogheda, Co Louth, which is already the nominated location for the ICGMA under the Government's decentralisation plan.
The document acknowledges that former marine minister Dermot Ahern decided in 2003 that the Dublin Marine Rescue Co-Ordination Centre (MRCC) should close, with Malin and Valentia designated as two manned marine emergency response centres.
The document claims that "multiple blackouts" have affected service in both Malin and Valentia in recent years, with some lasting for extended periods - resulting in "a total loss of emergency marine radio coverage to approximately one-third of the Irish coastline", with associated loss of telephony including 999/112 services.
However, this has been challenged by the Valentia coast radio action committee spokesman Richard Foran, who says that both locations have excellent power and communications, with back-up generators, and there was never a loss of emergency telephone services at any stage.
The ESB chairman has also said that electricity "outages" were "not an issue", as considerable modernisation work had been undertaken by the ESB on the network in recent years. Rural locations were in any case far less likely to come under pressure due to lower population, he said.
In a letter to Mr Dempsey, Eircom's programme manager for enterprise and Government solutions Tim Brosnan also says that Eircom invested heavily in the Iveragh peninsula.This included provision of a number of high-speed broadband alternative technologies, Mr Brosnan said.
