BID FOR COAST GUARD STATION‘TERMINATED’
Wicklow County Council does not have any plans to dispose of the site to anyone else at this time and we remain committed to the provision of the station at this location and hope that the OPW/Irish Coast Guard can resolve the issues that currently exist.’
The Officer in Charge of Greystones Coastguard, Dermot Macaulay, said that he had been told nothing officially by Wicklow County Council, the Coast Guard, or the OPW.
‘It is extremely disappointing,’ said Dermot. ‘We have been looking for this for over 12 years. We have 26 people training once a week with no running water, toilet or changing facilities.’
The Greystones station serves an area that stretches from Shankill to Mizen Head. Six members in Wicklow come to Greystones for their training.
The latest disappointment also has a knock-on effect as the garda station can’t be extended while the Coast Guard is still in facilities adjacent to theirs.
‘As a unit we’ve alway behaved,’ he said. ‘We didn’t kick up fuss or politically get involved. We just had faith that would get our station eventually.’
He said that they had never been consulted about their needs in a new facility.
‘It’s scandalous that this is just two lines with no comment regarding what Wicklow County Council are going to do about it,’ said Cllr Grainne McLoughlin after the news was revealed at last week’s meeting of Greystones Municipal District.
She said that this is a Wicklow East issue, not just a Greystones issue, and that members should be fighting for this. She said that there should be a suspension of standing orders at the full council (which took place on Monday) to discuss the matter.
Cllr Derek Mitchell said that this has been going on for over 12 years.
‘If they’d spoken to us 12 years ago we could have had it built, but they wanted to do their own thing,’ he said. ‘ The doors are going to cost something like €800,000 because they’re facing the slipway and big waves.’
He said that the boat should be kept in the marina.
‘We need to speak to the OPW. Local people haven’t been consulted. A huge amount of money has been wasted. A lot of money has been spent discovering how expensive this is,’ said Cllr Mitchell ‘We’ve been lied to,’ said Cllr Tom Fortune. ‘So many assurances were given. We had meetings with the minister coming out and tea and sandwiches. Everything was going to happen, and now it’s too pricey. We need a meeting with Sean Quirke [of Wicklow county Council] and someone from the OPW. I don’t think we should accept this.’
‘ Those that shout the loudest, get,’ said Cllr McLoughlin. ‘Down the country there are areas getting Coast Guard stations before us. We didn’t shout loud enough. We should not accept that these men and women have nowhere to be changing out of their clothes.’
‘ The fact is that this was promised and announced time and again,’ said Cllr Jennifer Whitmore.
Cllr Nicola Lawless said that Wicklow has five TDs, two of whom are ministers.
‘We have to tell them to pull their socks up,’ she added. District Manager Michael Nicholson said that he was staggered at the price quoted, €4.5 million.
‘We just build a library in Arklow of the highest spec for €4 million,’ he said.