Dingle company aims to make rescues safer
Members of the Dingle, Ballybunion, Doolin and Achill Coast Guard teams on a safety training course, organised by Mike O'Shea (third from right at back) at his Irish Rope Access training centre in Dingle at the weekend. Credit: Photo by Ted Creedon
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A DINGLE company has developed a new rescue safety system which is being adopted by the Irish Coast Guard nationally.
The system has been developed by Irish Rope Access which is based in the Údarás industrial park at Ballinaboula. The company was set up by Mike O'Shea who has been involved with rescue services for almost 25 years.
Mr O'Shea said he carried out an extensive examination of equipment used by rescue teams and found it is often misused or is unsuited to the purposes for which it is used. " As it transpired, most people were using most of the equipment incorrectly and even though they were working to European standards a lot of these standards were not designed for rescue teams but for individual use. We started testing this equipment in the UK and found that a lot of it wasn't fit for use in a rescue environment. And even though it was being used, any failure of that equipment could have been catastrophic," he explained.
" We designed new safety equipment and tested it over an 18month period. The system has now been adopted by rescue services in Ireland, both on land and on sea," he said.
" I've delivered talks on this new system to the English Coast Guard and to rescue services in America and Canada. These changes can take a long time to adopt because of the cost implication of buying new equipment and the re-training of personnel. We are currently working with the Irish Coast Guard and developing the system specifically designed for their requirements. We have people training Coast Guard teams all around Ireland at present," Mr O'Shea explained.
Three members of Irish Coast Guard teams from Achill, Doolin, Ballybunion and Dingle attended a three-day training course in Dingle over the weekend. They will train their own teams in the new safety system over the coming months.
