The Minister for Justice, Mr O'Donoghue, has undertaken to raise with the Government the issue of funding for the Kerry Mountain Rescue Team (KMRT) and other similar groups. It is hoped the move may lead to a more generous approach by the State to such voluntary but vital organisations.
The offer was made by the Minister in Kerry last weekend, just a week after the KMRT spent hours recovering two bodies from the MacGillycuddy's Reeks, the first double fatality which the rescue service has had to attend since it was formed in the 1960s.
Unpaid, skilled, and exceptionally brave when required, the voluntary members of the KMRT have saved scores of lives over the years on one of the most awe-inspiring but dangerous mountain ranges in Ireland. It is a matter for conjecture as to how many climbers and hill walkers owe their lives to the team, but it is a stark fact that 75 per cent of the KMRT's annual outlay, now running at €50,000 a year, is raised through church gate collections and events like the annual swim (Treasna na dTonnta).
Directly, through the Department of the Environment, and indirectly, through Kerry County Council, the State's contribution is no more than a miserly €14,000. According to Mr Jimmy Laide, treasurer of the KMRT, the meeting with Mr O'Donoghue was productive and he was appreciative of the work which the rescue team carries out in difficult circumstances and without much support.
While he could not give concrete guarantees, the Minister gave an assurance that he would bring the case to Government and would seek to put the KMRT's finances and those of other rescue services on a firmer footing. Mr Laide recalled that in the past, the extraordinary situation had arisen where team members had been on collection duties outside churches in Kerry when the call came to drop everything and head for the mountain to deal with an emergency.
Luckily, the work of the KMRT is well appreciated by the public and when an appeal has gone out for funds, there has always been a generous response. The hope was, he added, that with the support of a senior Government Minister, the need for church gate collections would be obviated.
It does seem curious, to say the least, that just because groups like the KMRT do not make loud noises, they have been left to all intents and purposes to their own devices.
The mountain rescue service was formed in 1966 following the deaths of two climbers on the mountains.
That Easter, a UCD student and a member of an English school party lost their lives within days of one another.
Since then, the dedicated volunteers have become a tight-knit unit, covering the entire south west of the country, principally the peninsulas of Dingle, Beara and Iveragh. They include 15 of the 20 highest peaks in the Republic, including Carrauntoohil (1039 metres) near which Mr John Lucey and Ms Joan O'Leary, two experienced mountaineers, fell to their death almost two weeks ago.
The rescue service is a registered charity and its 30 members train regularly in all facets of mountain rescue and use of the latest equipment. All team members are qualified in advanced first aid and many of them frequently upgrade their climbing skills abroad on some of world's toughest mountains.
Since 1966, the nature of injuries encountered by the team on the mountains includes leg (40 per cent) hypothermia (19 per cent) torso/back (13 per cent), with the remainder made up of coronary attack, and injuries to the head and other parts of the body. Over the years, the team has attended some 33 fatalities, mainly in the immediate Carrauntoohill area. Famously, it went searching for a honeymoon couple reported missing some years ago and found the pair safe and well in a tent. "It was hard to know whether it was us or the couple who had the reddest faces when we unzipped the tent," one member of the team remarked afterwards.
The team members are drawn from all walks of life and can become involved with the rescue service only through the goodwill of their employers. But they have one thing in common: they are all experienced mountaineers, known to their local clubs or to other members of the team, before they are even considered.
Over the past 15 years, the callout chart has mirrored the growing popularity of mountaineering as a leisure pursuit, and, by definition, the increased need to have such an expert group of rescue volunteers close at hand. The team now responds to over 20 calls for help each year.
While the recent tragedy on Carrauntoohill serves to illustrate the KMRT's warning that the mountains can be terribly unforgiving, even where practised climbers are concerned, people still continue to set out nonchalantly, badly prepared and without adequate skills to get them to and from where they want to go. The team urges such people to read its safety advice before venturing out again.
It can be found at http://www.kerrymountainrescue ie/safety/index.html. And having read the website, it has this advice to add: "Most people will spend a lifetime in the mountains and never be involved in an accident. Do try and take on some of the points contained above, however. Knowledge might not fit into a rucksack but it is the most important thing carried by any of us in the mountains - and what's more, it doesn't weigh a thing!"
Predictably, groups like the KMRT come into focus whenever a dramatic rescue occurs or bodies are recovered from the mountains. They are then forgotten about by everyone, including, it seems, the Government, until the next event. On this occasion, Mr O'Donoghue has offered what appears to be a helping hand to the voluntary rescue services. In Kerry, the offer has been accepted gratefully. The results are now being awaited.