Deteriorating: the Coastguard Station at the Doneraile in Tramore. 		     | Photo: Gavin Downey

Deteriorating: the Coastguard Station at the Doneraile in Tramore. | Photo: Gavin Downey


Scarcity of County Council resources is impacting on the state of Tramore’s Coastguard Station, which was only restored at a cost to the taxpayer of €3.5m just six years ago.
That was made clear at Tramore Town Council’s meeting on Tuesday night when Cllr Tom Raine (FG) drew attention to the deteriorating condition of the historic building.
He said that downstairs in particular was “awful”, with mould on the walls, a smell of dampness and doors boarded up. He wanted to know why it was allowed get into such a state and was told by Town Manager Brian White that it was a question of finance – while the County Council was doing all it could, there was a limit to its resources and the situation was unlikely to improve any time soon.
He said a management committee had been appointed by the County Council to run the building, owned by the OPW, as an arts and culture venue and some of the events held there had been tremendous.
He accepted people would like to see it better maintained and utilised, but it was being managed on a shoestring.
Cllr Lola O’Sullivan, also of Fine Gael and chairperson of the management committee, said the OPW had restricted the options for its use. She accepted there were difficulties with its maintenance and she appealed for more volunteers to assist in various ways.