Sean Connick has clashed directly with Transport Minister Noel Dempsey regarding the provision of a 24-hour Search and Rescue helicopter service based at Waterford Regional Airport.
On Monday, Mr Dempsey defended the decision to have a 12-hour service based at the airport from 2013, saying the south and southeast coasts would still have 24-hour cover because of the new helicopters that are being purchased as part of the new contracts.
But Mr Connick, who is the newly-appointed Minister of State with special responsibility for Fisheries, said he is against the move.
He said the reduction to a 12-hour daylight service from Waterford is completely unacceptable.
The Fianna Fáil TD for Wexford added that lives will be put at risk because if the proposed system is introduced, the rescue time for a call out in the southeast will be over nine minutes longer, which he says is simply not acceptable and that extra time will end up costing lives.
‘The so-called experts who have came up with this plan believe that having one full-time helicopter based in Sligo, one in Shannon, one in Dublin and a 12-hour helicopter service based in Waterford is sufficient to cover the entire country,’ said Mr Connick.
‘I do not accept this and believe that this proposal will economise at the cost of lives,’ he said, adding that he will try to have the decision reversed.
The new Minister for State is due back in his home town of New Ross tonight, where a big celebratory reception is planned.
