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A REVIEW INTO Irish search and rescue operations has found “several sources of confusion” and potential conflicts of interest among the agencies who oversee them.
The review, published today, was commissioned on foot of a recommendation by the Irish Air Accident Investigation Unit following the fatal crash of Rescue 116 last year.
Four people, including Captain Dara Fitzpatrick, Captain Mark Duffy, winch operator Paul Ormbsy and winch man Ciaran Smith, were killed on the mission after the helicopter they were travelling in crashed at Blackrock Island in Co Mayo.
The review, which was carried out by international experts, did not investigate the specific circumstances surrounding the crash and did not link its findings to the accident.
It found that the Irish Aviation Authority is designated as the “competent authority” in Ireland for overseeing European Commission regulations, but that the Safety Regulation Division is designated as Ireland’s supervisory authority under the Single European Sky initiative.
“This creates potential confusion about who is responsible for the safety oversight of the entities involved in the delivery of SAR aviation services,” the report says.
Clear and unambiguous
The report made 12 recommendations into how search and rescue operations should be carried out in Ireland, including that the IAA should be assigned with responsibility for legal and safety oversight of civil aviation search and rescue activities.
It also recommended that the IAA developed “clear and unambiguous” search and rescue regulatory material appropriate to the scale of the national aviation system, and to identify the resources required to develop and implement that material.
Minister for Transport Shane Ross, who appointed the review team in May, said he fully accepted the findings and recommendations of the review.
In a statement, he said: “I have instructed that all necessary steps be taken without delay to ensure speedy implementation of all of the recommendations.
“As the report explains, search and rescue oversight and regulation is a complex matter, and international regulation is still endeavouring to keep pace with practice on the ground.
“However, we now have an opportunity in Ireland – and a blueprint – to make meaningful improvement to our current oversight structures, and in doing so set a benchmark for other jurisdictions.”
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It must be a pretty long Bill to include all 5 billion genders.
@Brendan O’Brien: Like making fun of victims do you?
@Sean O Neill: So, I’m not allowed to point to the obvious fact that ‘Dj’ and ‘Sean O Neill’ are the same person. So be it.
@Brendan O’Brien: We’re not the same person. If you had even an ounce of awareness you’d know that,but you don’t.
@Brendan O’Brien: I’m not dj and dj is not me. Your comment was deleted I see. Careful now, 3 strikes and you’re out and ive noticed of late that your comments are becoming less and less polite and more and more bitchy. You want to know how to subvert the verification process, just in case you get banned? I’d miss you around here.
@Dj: Brendan is now thinking.. hmm… he must have two phones on the go and sent those comments simultaneously to trick me.. that’s the only explanation..
@Sean O Neill: That’s fine. Two separate people of identical views and idiolects, both of whom claim frequently that a bewildering number of genders exist these days. Got it.
@Brendan O’Brien: I’m genuinely not him, Brendan :-)
@Sean O Neill: DJ and you make a right pair.
@Brendan O’Brien: frequently claim??..Put links up to the articles where I made such comments? If I do it frequently then it shouldn’t be too hard to find a few. I’m going to bed now so I’ll expect a big long list in the morning when I wake up. Prove your crackpot theory once and for all and for all to see. Good man.
Yes, I’m going to trawl though old articles on the Internet for the purpose of doing research on dull and anonymous trolls. That wouldn’t be crazy at all.
@Brendan O’Brien: Stop wasting my time then with your nonsense.
@Brendan O’Brien: And mine!
On average, women choose (for different reasons) to earn less than mean. I don’t see the major difficulty with this.
*men
@Dumb as a Rock Mika: Nah that’s not it. It sexism. Don’t analyse it any further. Just trust me.
@Dumb as a Rock Mika: yeah but its more about why women go to lower paying jobs – as you said there are many reasons but we still need to acknowledge them. A lot of high paying industries were created by men, aimed at male employees well before women were considered workforce material and its taking a long time to change those mindsets. Also, women who take roles in what are perceived as ‘womens jobs’ such as nursing and teaching are paid lower wages because the standard was set at a lower wage. Those are careers which require a lot of dedication and training but are not rewarded well enough. Also, the argument that women should earn less because, well – babies, is ridiculous and it forces that idea that its purely the mothers responsibility, better to fight for more paternal leave
@NickyVera: Incorrect. Jobs like nursing and teaching pay less because they don’t scale like manufacturing, engineering and other production businesses etc.. And women choose those positions because they want to. And that’s okay.
@Sean O Neill: agree nothing wrong with choosing those careers they are very admirable choices but I still think there is a culture issue. Little girls and boys are almost told they can be nurse(girl)/doctor(boy) etc. I remember as a little girl I always just assumed they were girls jobs. I think a lot is changing for the better, but women often choose those jobs because they are conditioned from a young age to see them as an obvious career choice, same for men and technical careers
@NickyVera: I’m not trying to be rude but that is also incorrect. Male and female preferences and behaviours have a lot of evolutionary psychology behind them and this is universal across different cultures and even some different species. Gender expression is not a social construct, it is an emergent property of evolution. Of course there are exceptions, I’m talking about general trends. Women are generally more nurturing and men are generally more competitive and aggressive, hence the disparity in occupations. It’s got nothing to with sexism, societal pressure or norms and again, there are exceptions of.course.
@NickyVera:
Why dont women go out and create something? New industrys new manufacturing techniques etc. Become leaders . No ones stopping you from creating something. Women can hire only women and blow the men away.
@NickyVera: Of course, we have to acknowledge the reasons. However, that is something that people don’t want to do.
Research shows that it’s personal preference that leads to gender gaps in most industries. In countries where women have greater political, social, and economic freedoms, these gaps actually widen. As the gender equality rating of a country increases, the gender gap in industries such as STEM increases. A paradox they call it.
However, this is not a gender paradox. It’s simple. Men and women have different passions and interests. And as women gain greater freedoms, their choices actually reflect that. And it might not be PC to state but these different passions and interests are rooted deeply in biology. Not social construction.
@Sean O Neill: ok, so why nurturing careers should be less well paid than ones that involve aggressivity? How well a job is appreciated and rewarded is a cultural factor, not genetic
@Daniela Monza: I’ve already explained that above. The market sets the rate. Simple as that.
@Sean O Neill: thanks Sean, to be fair I agree with what you’re saying although I would have preferred that when I was little it wasn’t just assumed I would be a nurse/teacher etc. Good to see some constructive debate happen in the comments section for once rather than people firing insults back and forth :)
@NickyVera: not to be impolite but how old are you? I ask because this could be a generational thing. Very different being in primary school 20/30 years ago when you compare it to today. I think that mindset has changed among the younger generation of teachers these days.
@Daniel Casey: thanks Daniel, never asl a woman her age! (Just kidding) lets just say my fortieth birthday is not too far away
@NickyVera: a lesson I’ll bare in mind! But to be fair times they are a changing and I would imaging teaching has changed a lot since your time in school as it has since I’ve left.
No pay gaps in anywhere i worked because i only worked where there was a union but at 3 places i worked including my current employer allow women to not do certain jobs if they choose , such as operate lift vehicles or empty bins in their workplaces , if a man refuses he will be issued a warning. When i asked 2 of the ladies i work with about this they told me “it’s a mans job anyway “. Seems only men can be sexist.
@Gawd: Most people won’t have a problem with companies declaring their hourly rates across the board, there shouldn’t be a difference between the sexes. Most of us have wives, sisters, girlfriends or daughters and will fight tooth and nail for them so I don’t see a problem with this.
Where I do see an issue is when they take something straightforward and make it unnecessarily complicated, as in the UK, multiply by this, divide by that take the mean and and that number to Friday. AARRGGHH!!!
How ridiculous. If it’s just a straight average, then a single man earning millions (the CEO) will completely skew the figures. If women want to reach the top in the same numbers as men then they need to stop having babies and work like slaves 15 hours a day. No such thing as a free lunch, there are choices to be made.
@Fred Jonsen: it will likely be a comparison of similar roles (such as male v female project managers). Also – stop having babies??? 1. Child rearing is not a womans responsibility, how about changing the culture to more shared responsibility 2. Women can hardly hand over their reproductive system to men 3. I know more women who work 15 hour days than men, dont imply women are lazy 4. You do realise no babies no people right?
@NickyVera:
Oh really and what if the male project manager has 10 years experience and the female project manager has 5 years experience? Should they be paid the same? And what if the male had experience managing huge projects in Dubai while the woman had experience only in here local town? You’re quite sure they’re allowing for that? Nah, they just took a straight average. Roles are so specialised these days in big companies that it’s almost impossible to compare anyone’s salary.
@Fred Jonsen: To be fair the role with a predefined wage would probably go to the person best qualified, male or female. If you’re talking about gender quotas then that’s a different thing, the role is going to a predetermined gender, regardless of qualifications or experience. That’s lunacy, would you be happy with that person operating on someone you love and care about, I wouldn’t.
@Boyne Sharky: yeah I completely disagree with gender quotas. I’m a woman and I think they only set us back!
@NickyVera: I thought I disagreed with gender quotas as really jobs should go to the most qualified person regardless of gender. However, as it stands, the number of males at the top far outweighs the number of females. This makes it difficult for women to get their foot in the door – especially if consistently interviewed by panels of men (perhaps with a token woman thrown in). Perhaps the gender gap initially needs to be equalised artificially, giving future generations of women role models at the top. In my field, I have never ever worked for a female consultant and thus have nobody to model my future career on.
Yet more red tape for business…ultimately the consumer pays for it
*Gender Earnings Gap. Fixed your headline for you.
@neilo: No, you’re not. It’s been illegal to pay women less than men, for a long time. That ain’t good enough for the gender communists though :-)
@neilo: Nothing tinfoil about it. They’re running basically the same OS.
If a person is discriminated against in their job (salary, promotion, respect, etc.)because of their gender, there are already laws there that they can use to seek redress.
This “gender pay gap” is just sexist nonsense.
Why not pay gaps between foreign nationals and the paddy while your at it. I would that could lead to some embarrassing reading
Is there any news on the investigation into the gender expenditure gap?
@Garry Coll: Again just look at the world in which you live. Go into any large department store and compare the amount of floor space devoted to women-only products with that devoted to men-only products. In the US it is 7 to 1 in favour of women-only products. The truth is that more money is earned through the labour of men but more of that money is spent on women than on men.
@Frank McGlynn: Not sure what the relevance of this is?
@drsarehumanstoo: He asked about the gender expenditure gap.which is the other side of the coin. More money is spend on women than on men even though more household income is earned by the labour of men. If you cannot see the relevance I am afraid there is nothing I can do for you.
When are these idiots going to accept the fact that there is no ‘gender pay gap’, but there is an earnings gap due to the fact that in most households men still carry primary responsibility for providing financially for their families. Just look at the world around you and you will see that this is true. Differential pay rates based on sex were made illegal in the mid-seventies. No doubt some ‘consultant’, who is ideologically pure from a feminist viewpoint, will be paid a large fee at the taxpayer’s expense to do research on this non-issue.
I assume it will also take account of the specific job in question, hours worked, yrs of experience, qualifications, performance on the job, money made for the firm etc. If not, its worthless
@Damon16: Not a hope. Being precise and thorough would completely debunk the myth this exercise is suppose to verify.
First 25 migrants and now this? Are you trying to make the broflakes’ heads explode?
@Brendan O’Brien: There should be debate about this first, I have seen several comments about this in the UK which bring up legitimate issues. For example a company that supports women with families by generating part-time positions and gives work to less skilled women on low income will end up looking bad because of the earnings gap but will gain better PR now by getting rid of them and favouring the privileged privately educated women for higher positions.
What would be your thoughts?
@Niamh Breslin: Most sensible comment made so far, life is complex and I don’t believe ideological systems favour the majority of people of all genders who are just trying to live their lives as best they can and support each other
@Niamh Breslin: I assume that that will be taken into account in the legislation.
@Brendan O’Brien: Legislation?
That situation is just one of many that shows the stats trotted out on this issue put women under severe pressure to compete with men in a competition they can’t win
@Brendan O’Brien: Why would you assume, should there not of been research done with regards to the impact on all women, examples from other countries, debate even before this is made law?
@Bernie Roche: I never said that I was in favour of the legislation. I have no strong views on it, but I know plenty of people (men) for whom ‘gender pay gap’ is a kind of trigger that sets them ranting.
@Brendan O’Brien: That’s because it’s total nonsense and the gap is completely fair. There is no problem here.
@Bernie Roche: Is the purpose of such a measure not to empower and vindicate a small percentage of people who perpetuate this ‘gendar pay gap’ theory?
What additional pressure would an average working woman be put under?
Are you saying that if a report showed that some women are paid less than their male colleagues then these women are coerced into doing more to get paid the same???
@Brendan O’Brien:
Not saying you’re in favour of it, I just don’t see how they can legislate for situations such as the one in Niamh’s comment.
@Ciaran Henry:
Hi Ciaran, I’m sorry I don’t really understand your first question.
I’m not saying the legislation will put women under pressure to try and earn more.
There are people out there who think women should earn the same as men on average and I don’t think that is a reasonable goal.
Where the pressure on women comes in is if young girls grow up hearing that they should be rocket scientists and engineers.
What about “New entrant” pay gap- different pay for same work for nurses, teachers and doctors?
@Oisin O’Connell: Exactly. Most men marry women so household income evens out in most cases. The problem is young people are working their backsides off to subsidise older workers’ inflated Celtic tiger salaries while being paid barely enough to cover rent. This is most obvious in the public sector where pay scales are transparent but it is a much bigger problem in the private sector.
A noble idea in theory, it’s only the reality that makes it a bad idea.
The wage gap does exist,the reasons for it is not sinister, they are life choices by women.
If you are a staunch supporter of such policies like this I’d suggest you watch the below link. If you disagree with I’d certainly like to hear where as you may change my mind .
The reality is this.
More women graduate from college in Ireland than men by about 15%.
Women are better paid between the ages of 18-34.
A unmarried women between ages of 40-55 is better paid than a man. Misogyny and sexism does exist no doubt about it but it accounts for a tiny percentage of the overall reason men are paid more on average then women. Any economist worth their salt has debunked this
@Conor Shock: So you’re saying we should pay our economists with salt? That is grossly insensitive.
Mother’s get the 9 month maternity leave and if the parents split then they will get the kids unless there is drugs and alcohol abuse etc. If we truly want equality in the workplace then it will only work if maternity/paternity time is shared and we stop giving women the advantage in other areas. I don’t see anyone banging on about gender quotas either when it comes to getting men into childcare and women into mining. Cherry picking all over the shop and if a man questions anything to do it then we are seen as sexist. Not the case, you just can’t cheery pick whatever suits you. Needs to be across the board with everything.
Census 2016 men work 25% more hours than women…
http://www.cso.ie/en/releasesandpublications/ep/p-wamii/womenandmeninireland2016/
@Ciaran James Murphy: That’s racist.. or something.
Nothing wrong with transparency.
So I have two problems with this. First off the science is pretty clear that when a multifactor analysis is done and factors other than gender are controlled for the pay gap more or less disappears.
My second problem with this is: havnt we all been giving grief to the Catholic church for years for using shame to control people. Since when is shaming companies into doing ‘the right thing’ seem like a moral law. There are people who sexually discriminate and they should be prosecuted under our current laws through due process and not in the dangerous court of public opinion which often does not have all the facts. Innocent until proven guilty.
I guess they aren’t a fan of Jordan Peterson.
I once met a chap, a bender gay Jap, who sat on his hole, singing his song, lamenting the dole that he sold for Saigon. He meted the strength, even though he was bent, to work his ass off in perpetual lent. He finally came, expending no blame, to suffer the insight that himself and the World are exactly the same.
I actually can’t believe how dense politicians are to believe this absolute nonsense feminist conspiracy theory.
This is a pointless ‘spin-exercise’ that will accomplish nothing. One employee who started in the role earlier than the other or has more ad-hoc duties should be paid more than their colleague. If they have more experience or qualifications too.
If this is a man (its sexist and the Gendar Pay Gap). If this is a woman (its a non-issue seemingly).
Poplulas political horseshit and we are all falling for it.
That is Über-amazing.
have your say