Funding for a Garda powerboat has been approved by the Minister for Justice, Mr O'Don oghue, and patrols of the Shannon river and estuary are expected to begin next summer.
A Department proposal seen by The Irish Times stated that the boat was needed to improve Border security. "Despite the considerable expenditure of resources on Border security there remains a natural transit route via the Shannon-Erne waterway between both jurisdictions, which remains virtually unpoliced," the proposal said.
The 30 ft, 260 horsepower boat being considered would cost more than £150,000, maintenance and fuel would cost up to £8,000 annually and travel and subsistence payments of up to £20,000 a year would be paid to the Garda crew members. Members of the Garda Underwater Unit based in Santry, Dublin, will crew the boat, and the unit will be renamed the Garda Water Unit. Four crews of three people are to be trained, with one crew member in each team trained to coxswain standard.
This crew member would be expected to sleep on the boat, "ensuring that it is rarely left unoccupied. The boat would be equipped for this purpose and should it prove to be a target for vandals, an alarm could be fitted."
The remaining crew members will be volunteers from the nine Garda divisions that border the Shannon waterway region. Berthing for the boat would be provided at private marinas in Killaloe, Co Clare, Portumna, Co Galway, Athlone and Carrick-on-Shannon.
Up to 10,000 boats a year use the 300-mile stretch of river. "For the most part these movements go unchecked, unregulated and unpoliced, although attracting huge volumes of people." The Garda has warned that boats are being used to bring drugs to dance events held close to the river.
The cost of the boat is expected to come out of the Garda Estimates for 1999. It will be fitted with navigational equipment, a global positioning system and dry suits and life-jackets. It is believed that tenders for the boat will be advertised here and in Europe.
The Water Unit will be the third new Garda unit in less than two years. Funding for a second helicopter for the Aerial Unit was provided in the recent Budget estimates and the Garda Mounted Unit was set up this year.
