Gardaí in Fenit, Co Kerry, are investigating the circumstances surrounding a break-in at Fenit lifeboat station at the weekend which resulted in damage to safety equipment.
The incident is believed to have occurred in the early hours of Saturday morning, according to voluntary staff attached to the RNLI lifeboat base.
Six RNLI offshore lifejackets were taken, three of which were retrieved later, and emergency flares were also set off in the harbour area.
Two of the three lifejackets found at the scene had been inflated, according to Det Garda Jim Donovan who is investigating the incident. Gardaí are confident that those responsible will be apprehended, following examination of CCTV footage.
Ger O'Donnell, RNLI operations manager at Fenit, described it as a "thoughtless act of thuggery" which could have put lives in danger. "If we had had a call-out on Friday night or Saturday, our response time could have been delayed by this, and lives could have been lost."
Fortunately a reserve cache of lifejackets and safety equipment was not touched during the incident, and the station did not have to put itself on restricted alert, he said. There was some damage to toilets in the base during the break-in.
Mr O'Donnell said the response of the local community had been very heartening. "We depend on voluntary contributions, and these lifejackets are expensive. People here in Fenit were absolutely disgusted at this sort of behaviour."
Fenit is one of the busiest lifeboat stations on the west coast, close to shipping and air traffic at the mouth of the Shannon estuary - and with growing marine leisure activity on the Atlantic seaboard.
Its area of responsibility extends from north of the Blaskets to the Clare coastline, and it has an inshore lifeboat complementing its offshore craft. It records about 25 emergency call-outs annually.