Calculated Risks

When hurricane Ophelia passed by Ireland a few months ago, a couple of incidents got a lot of public attention and criticism. One occurred on the east coast, where the coastguard helicopter Rescue116 was called out to rescue 4 wind-surfers. Except the surfers didn’t need to be rescued. As the Rescue 116 Facebook page noted, the windsurfers were not in trouble and didn’t require rescuing, but it’s likely that the person who called the Emergency Services was well-intentioned. The other incident was video footage of two young men leaping from the diving board in Salthill into the choppy sea.

Just before Xmas, a T.D. submitted proposed legislation that  would make it an offence to go into the sea for any leisure activity during designated times (such as during a Status Red weather event). While the proposal from Darragh O’Brien is well-meaning, I foresee a few problems. If the law had been in place in October (when Ophelia hit), it wouldn’t have applied to the wind-surfers. They had set out before the Status Red warning was upgraded from a named list of counties to the entire country.  Most people in Ireland still haven’t really got their heads around the different status warnings, and it’s likely that there would be a lot of well-intentioned, but false alarms. Though it doesn’t make the news, there is a regular cohort of swimmers that swim from the diving board in Salthill every week – irrespective of the weather. I don’t see it as a useful use of police time to have the Gardaí in Salthill called down to the Blackrock diving board every time there are swimmers bobbing about in a large swell.

Lastly, idiots don’t stop being idiots just because a law is passed, and it’s unlikely a law will deter them.  Far more people will drown in Ireland because they couldn’t swim, didn’t bother with a life-jacket or had taken a few drinks before they entered the water. Enforcement of existing legislation or even better access to swimming lessons for kids would be an investment that would yield far happier outcomes.

However, there is a more useful piece of legislation that would help the emergency services far more than Darragh O’Brien’s bill.  Yesterday, Kerry Mountain Rescue Team rescued 3 climbers in two separate call-outs. The rescues required 20 members  (more than half of their entire team) and every single member was a volunteer, giving up time with their families to ensure others got back to theirs safely. The team was called out again today to rescue another hiker. Apart from giving their own time for free, 50% of the team’s running costs must be raised through charitable donations. It’s much the same with the other mountain rescue teams around the country. How about the Oireachtas agree to at least fund 100% of the costs of each volunteer-run rescue service ?