The Minister for the Marine, Mr Ahern, has decided to close down the Marine Rescue Co-Ordination Centre in Dublin and transfer its functions to Valentia in Kerry and Malin in Donegal.
The surprise move comes just days after it was confirmed that the Minister's Department was to shed another of its functions by merging the Irish Coast Guard and the Maritime Safety Directorate into one separate agency.
It is understood that both decisions were taken by the Minister without reference to the views of senior Irish Coast Guard personnel.
Radio officers at the Marine Rescue Co-Ordination Centre (MRCC) were informed of the new development at a staff meeting in the Department of Communications, Marine and Natural Resources late this week.
However, none of the co-operating rescue bodies, including the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI), were consulted on the decision, even though the Coast Guard depends heavily on voluntary assistance.
The MRCC was established as one of the recommendations of a Government safety review in 1990, given the density of activity on the Irish Sea coastline.
Over 20 million people cross the Irish Sea annually by sea or air, and the volume of traffic and of marine leisure activity has increased in recent years.
A Deloitte and Touche consultancy review of the Irish Coast Guard, published in August 2002, had recommended that the Coast Guard be established as an agency separate from the Department, and said that savings could be made if the three rescue co-ordination centres be rationalised into two. Initially, there had been fears among staff in Valentia, Co Kerry, and Malin, Co Donegal, that one of their bases would close. However, the 18 staff at MRCC, who are now located at Leeson Lane in Dublin, are to be offered jobs in Kerry and Donegal instead.
The Deloitte and Touche report also advised against merging the Irish Coast Guard and new Maritime Safety Directorate. It doubted whether such a merger would result in greater efficiency and warned that the profile of both organisations would be diluted. Significantly, it also said that there could be problems in the reporting relationship at senior management level - a factor which could prove to be critical in a major emergency.
Mr Maurice Mullen, head of the Maritime Safety Directorate, told The Irish Times yesterday that there would be no diminution in the emergency response as a result of the decision to close MRCC Dublin, and said that it was in line with the Government's policy on decentralisation. Technology was such that coast radio stations could be situation anywhere, and there would be a significant investment in upgrading equipment in the existing stations, he said.