Malin Head staff say 16 jobs will go 05.11.07

STAFF at Malin Head Marine Rescue Centre say they derive no comfort from claims their workplace will be retained as a coast guard station. They believe at most, only two workers will keep their jobs under such a scheme with 16 more set to get the axe. The 18 workers were responding to Fianna Fáil Senator Cecilia Keaveney who stressed last week that Malin Head and its sister station in Valentia would not be closed or disposed of as Irish coast guard locations. She said there would be "no diminution in the quality of the emergency response capability on the west coast" though admitting "the precise nature of their long-term function has yet to be finalised". But the Malin Head staff told InishowenNews.com: "Senator Keaveney's statement does not get away from the fact that if current plans are allowed to go ahead Malin Head and Valentia Coast Guard will close as rescue centres, resulting in a loss of sustainable jobs in Inishowen and Valentia Island.

"There are currently 18 staff at Malin Head. If Malin Head and Valentia were to be upgraded as the two centres for the country as originally planned, it would result in the creation of up to 28 jobs for Malin Head." The workers say the Government statement merely means the buildings and equipment would remain and be remotely
controlled from the planned new centres with "possibly one or two staff required at Malin Head in this situation". Their concerns reached the Seanad floor last week with Sinn Féin's Senator Pearse Doherty and Senator Keaveney locking horns on the issue. Cllr. Pádraig MacLochlainn accused Senator Keaveney of "defending the indefensible" rather than joining Senator Doherty in the fight to save the Malin Head jobs. "The facts are that the Marine Rescue Co-ordination Centre is going at Malin Head and with it, the vast majority of jobs at the coast guard station. No amount of spin can cover this up," said Cllr. MacLochlainn.
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