The Irish Coast Guard is the Republic's marine emergency organisation.
Responsibilities include search and rescue, pollution control, salvage and wreck, and safety awareness.
About 65 full-time staff are at four locations: Dublin, Malin Head, Valentia and Cork. There are also 683 volunteer staff in 52 coast guard units.
The North has 30 full-time coast guard staff with Her Majesty's Coast Guard. There are 13 units.
The Dublin-based Irish Coast Guard Marine Rescue Co-ordination Centre shares responsibility for co-ordinating search and rescue operations with the Marine Rescue Sub-Centres at Malin Head and Valentia.
The service operates two civilian Sikorski S61N SAR helicopters out of Shannon and Dublin airports.
Volunteers receive £10 for each exercise and £8 for the first hour, and £3 per hour thereafter for any incident. Area officers also get a quarterly retainer of £175, while deputies get £87.50.
