‘Coast guard head office didn’t step up and deliver’

A FORMER Doolin Coast Guard member has revealed he resigned twice in the space of about four months after assurances to address management issues were not addressed.

Des Egan, who jointed the Doolin Unit in 2015, resigned at the end of October amid frustration about the way volunteers were being treated by the Coast Guard at national level.

After receiving a request to return, Mr Egan said he decided to join the interim team in late December without knowing who was or wasn’t rejoining following an assurance the main findings of the Mulvey Report would be addressed within a three-month period.

The former volunteer confirmed he stayed for about three months and left again because management issues were not addressed to his satisfaction.

“It wasn’t an easy decision. Management in head office didn’t step up and deliver what I consider they are paid for. What has happened the unit is sad. People don’t give up their time and energy to give something back to the community and then walk away.

“It turned into a political football that didn’t help. I would love to see a fully functioning multi-disciplined unit again.

“The last sector manager, Olan O’Keeffe was as genuine a person as you could meet and did his best before he was moved. Unfortunately, his hands were tied.”

Despite his work commitments in the aircraft leasing industry, Mr Egan said he spent more training and upskilling than some members qualifying to the level of Deputy Coxswain and qualified as a climber in five years.

The Doolin native is intrinsically linked to the sea through his mother Bridget Garrihy and extended family who are involved in tourism-related enterprises.

While the new Doolin Station was a state-of-the art facility, Mr Egan said securing any improvements from the OPW was very hard and his suggestion to widen the entrance gate to make it easier to take out their rescue boat didn’t happen.

National impractical procedures caused a lot of frustration for volunteers.

“The blue lights debacle was a joke. There was a blanket ban to drive on blue lights until you did a one-day course, which I completed as well as an off-road course.

“I could now drive the Coast Guard jeep with blue lights flashing within the rules of the road.

“The unit had a qualified fire service volunteer and a paramedic who had trained to a higher standard than the Coast Guard in blue lights but they weren’t allowed to drive a Coast Guard vehicle using the blue lights unless they did the Coast Guard blue lights course.

“The Coast Guard purchased a climbing van but did not not fit it for purpose. Further to this, when the van came you had to have a C-licence so I couldn’t drive the van even with the blue lights qualification.

“The fire fighter and paramedic had the C-licence but if they didn’t have the Coast Guard blue lights course completed, they couldn’t drive it. It is just mind-boggling.”

He claimed a lot of the head office decisions were reactionary to something that might have happened in one unit and would result in a new national procedure without any consideration for local factors.

“No-one launched the boat like we did in Doolin because of the conditions and the pier. A change because of something that happened in Dingle would have a huge change for us in Doolin because we couldn’t function under those guidelines.

“I wasn’t party to any of the historical grievances in the unit. That was down to management to sort out, which didn’t happen,” he said.

Having completed a series of interviews with Graphite consultants in July 2021, Mr Egan pointed out no constructive feedback or decisions were made as a result of this process.

“There is an element of the ostrich syndrome, they bury their head in the sand and hope it blows over. Things will not improve if they are left fester.

“I asked for a copy of the Graphite Report and was told it was private. If it was private, how did Kieran Mulvey get it?”

On October 29, 2021, Doolin volunteer Philippe Gosseau resigned after completing 11 years in the unit.

The wedding photographer said it wasn’t true that the six volunteers resigned due to interpersonal issues as three of them quit due to management deficits.

About two and a half years before his resignation, he recalled volunteers had requested changes during meetings with management, but nothing happened and “things only got worse”.

“Some of the problems in the unit between two groups of people are going back more than ten years, but the management never tackled it head on. Things only get worse with time and then you add in the tragic death of Caitríona Lucas.

“They weren’t interested in making any changes. It is sad to see keeping up appearances is still going on. The Coast Guard are pretending to have a functioning unit, which they don’t.

“It is a joke. You can’t have an active unit without at least 12 to 16 people.

“They fired 12 people for no good reason. It was stated there were interpersonal issues that couldn’t be resolved.

“This was was just a handy way of getting rid of everyone and pick and choose who was going to be taken back.

“It didn’t work because people didn’t come back one by one. We had a great unit a few years ago. I am still talking to everyone on both sides.

“Most of their decisions were making us less efficient all of the time. There was too much emphasis on paperwork. They had their own agendas and careers, and volunteers didn’t really matter.

“I said what I had to say many times and it made no difference. The management style was terrible.
A few years ago, we all received a letter warning all of us if we didn’t follow Coast Guard rules we would be fired.

“After eight or nine years doing my best, I got this letter. They were aiming this letter at probably one or two people but sent it to everyone so they couldn’t be brought to court for targeting a particular person.

“How was I supposed to react to that? A senior management person came to Doolin and said this was part of a team building exercise. I wish they had concentrated on supporting and promoting volunteers to make them more efficient for rescues,” he said.

Mr Gosseau recalled volunteers were spending between 200 and 400 hours a year, which included attending upskilling courses, training sometimes two or three times a week during the summer and callouts.

Despite being asked to return, he refused on the basis that none of his issues were addressed in any meaningful way.

He claimed some of the Coast Guard procedures that were introduced for legal reasons to avoid court cases were not practical.

He pointed out if volunteers didn’t build up enough hours on the boat their role as coxswain or deputy coxswain could be downgraded, which would be reasonable only for his assertion that if four coxswains are on a boat, only one can claim for their hours for that day.

“You could barely keep up these hours even though we were sometimes training two or three hours a week.”