A plan to station a new £1.7 million lifeboat on a Co Donegal island has had to be shelved because dredging work which the Royal National Lifeboat Institution had recommended be done four years ago has yet to be carried out. The RNLI wants to station a Severn lifeboat on Arranmore Island as part of a plan to reduce call-out times significantly by 2000. It says a high-powered boat is particularly needed there because of the severe conditions off the north-west coast.
Any lifeboat stationed on Arranmore would need to use Burtonport harbour to land casualties and make ambulance runs. The Severn cannot use it in its present condition because the approach channel is too shallow during low spring tides.
The RNLI said the Department of the Marine was "fully appraised" of its intention to station a Severn at Arranmore as part of an overall plan to ensure that by 2000, any call from within 50 miles of the British or Irish coasts would be answered within 21/2 hours in fair weather conditions.
The RNLI opened a new lifeboat house on Arranmore at the beginning of August but the Severn boat originally intended for the island will now be stationed further down the west coast on the Aran Islands. The Severn has a speed of 25 knots compared to the 17-knot capability of the Tyne class boat currently stationed at Arranmore. The RNLI said equipment and technology on the Severn class were 15 years ahead of that on the Tyne lifeboat.
Mr Colin Williams, inspector of lifeboats in Ireland, said while the lifeboat would enhance the service from the Aran Islands, "there's a greater immediate need for it in the north-west. We would like to give Arranmore the best boat available".
A spokesman for the Department said a feasibility study on the costs of the dredge had been sanctioned and a hydrographic survey and other technical works were to be carried out. If it got a satisfactory costing, it would offer Donegal County Council up to 75 per cent of the cost of the dredge. However, it would be up to the council to decide if it wanted to commit funds to the project.
The spokesman said drawing up a draft contract for the dredge would be a "long and tedious process" and it was being slowed by engineers in the north-west having "a huge amount of work at the moment".
He said it was "quite possible" that the RNLI had informed the Department four years ago of the need for extra dredging work, but at the time the Department was tied into a dredging contract for Burtonport which only catered for rock removal, and not the silt problem which was preventing the Severn from using the harbour.
Mr Williams expressed the hope that "all haste" would be made in completing the project.
It will be 1999 before a Severn can be deployed to Arranmore again, but the RNLI says the north-west coast may yet have to settle for a less powerful lifeboat if the Burtonport Harbour is not dredged within the next two years.
