Minister for Transport Noel Dempsey TD today applauded the Irish Coast Guard service as a new TV series on Ireland's national search and rescue service begins on RTE 1 this evening.

Speaking today, Minister Dempsey said: "This exciting new series will be the first time that the Irish public will get an exclusive insight into the day-to-day life saving work of the Irish Coast Guard. I hope that viewers will appreciate the superb service that the Irish Coast Guard provides, frequently in very extreme conditions and often involving very real life and death situations."

Director of the Irish Coast Guard, Mr. Chris Reynolds said, "The main role of the Irish Coast Guard is to provide Ireland with 24/7/365 maritime and coastal search and rescue service, but this isn't all we do. All around our coastline, members of the Irish Coast Guard are always on standby to provide assistance for a variety of other incidents, including emergency medical transfers, mountain rescues, searches of our rivers and lakes and providing responses to pollution control and separately, support to communities in the islands off Ireland."

Mr. Reynolds concluded: "In the next few years, the Irish Coast Guard service will see further improvements in the capacity, range, speed and capability of our search and rescue service and this will help consolidate our position as one of the most respected Coast Guard services in the world."

The Irish Coast Guard service TV series Rescue 117 begins this evening, (Tuesday 14 September 2010 on RTE 1 at 8:30pm) and runs for 6 weeks.