DEFENCE FORCES 2019 ROUNDUP
The Irish Defence Forces had another busy year, both at home and abroad, in 2019.
A
t home, the Defence Forces conducted a wide range of Defence and Security Operations in Ireland in the last year. Supporting An Garda Síochána, the HSE, Local Authorities and other agencies of the State on a daily basis. These included almost 200 operations involving explosive ordnance disposal, prisoner escorts, explosives escorts, major cash escorts and search operations, with 336 personnel deployed to assist in 14 searches at the request of Gardaí. Some 2,614 personnel were deployed for the visits of US president
Donal Trump and vice-president Mike Pence, while members of the Defence Forces continue to provide a permanent armed guard at Portlaoise maximum security prison, as well as the Central Bank and Irish Industrial Explosives, and contribute personnel and expertise in supporting the Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment’s National Cyber Security Centre. Approximately 120 personnel were deployed to assist civil authorities during multiple operations, including combatting gorse fires in Wicklow, Donegal and Mayo, while Defence Forces ambulances and crews were deployed on seven occasions to assist the National Ambulance Service in Dublin, Cork and Kildare. Offshore, the Naval Service fleet conducted 780 boarding operations and detained 12 vessels for alleged
infringements of fishing regulations in support of the Sea Fisheries Protection Authority. This was supported by the Air Corps, who conducted more than 130 maritime surveillance patrol flights over territorial waters in 2019. Patrolling an area 12 times the size of Ireland, maritime defence and security over 220 million acres of sea is no easy task, so the commissioning of the new LÉ George Bernard Shaw in April is a welcome addition to the fleet. The Naval Service Diving Section were also deployed for 26 operations in 2019, following requests from An Garda Síochána and the Coast Guard. In the air, as well as assisting the Naval Service, the Air Corps completed more than 230 Emergency Aeromedical Services Missions supporting the HSE in providing a medical service for seriously ill patients in isolated rural communities.
IRELAND 10 AMBULANCE
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