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Fight intensifies to save Malin
Coastguard
29.01.08
by Liam Porter, Inishowen Independent
THE closure of the Malin Head Coastguard Station
would send out a signal that Inishowen is a place
where jobs cannot be sustained and therefore must be
opposed by everyone in the peninsula, it was claimed
on Sunday.
At a packed meeting in Malin Head Community Hall
attended by over 250 people from all over Donegal,
Andrew Ward of Inishowen Development Partnership
insisted that not only was the Coastguard Station
vital for the safety of everyone on the water, its
importance as a place of employment in Inishowen
must not be underestimated. |
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“We need to be able to
keep jobs here, we need the people of Inishowen to
make that clear. If we allow this to happen what
kind of signal will that send out from here. If we
can’t keep these jobs how will we ever be able to
create jobs up here?”
Mr. Ward said that Inishowen |
was steeped in maritime
tradition and there would never be a better area to
find people to fill jobs at this centre and he
dismissed suggestions that problems with
infrastructure should be a reason to move to the
east coast.
“If there are problems with the electricity supply,
then they should fix them. If they say there are
problems with broadband supply to the area, I’d say
then fix them. I mean if Malin Head can be used as a
centre for the aviation authority why can it not be
continued as a base for the Coastguard Station. If
it is good enough as a base to keep the planes
flying over Ireland safe then surely it should be
good enough to keep our boats safe.” |
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The message coming loud
and clear from the meeting was that there is no way
the local community or indeed the coastal community
in Donegal will accept the decision that could see
jobs taken from the station in Malin Head and
relocated to the east coast. |
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Fr. John Joe Duffy who
attended with a delegation from Arranmore Island to
lend their support to the campaign, said the
Minister’s plan was putting lives at risk.
“I have accused the Minister in the past of putting
lives at risk and I stand over that because in
England a similar policy of shutting down Coastguard
stations began around 1998 yet in 2004 their Select
Committee on Transport reported that there had been
an increase in the number of deaths.”
He insisted that the importance of the Malin Head
Coastguard Station was recognised all along the west
coast and he assured those present that coastal
communities would back the campaign to have the
station remain open.
The meeting saw cross party and cross border support
for the campaign with Sinn Féin Senator Pearse
Doherty, Fine Gael Councillor Bernard McGuinness and
Deputy Joe McHugh, Fianna Fail councillors Rena
Donaghey, Dermot McLaughlin and Marian McDonald and
SDLP Assembly Member John Dallat all there to pledge
their support to the campaign. |
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