Mayo County Council is to engage with An Taisce and other agencies over the life guarding requirement for beaches to retain a blue flag. The issue of having lifeguard cover on all blue flag beaches during the bathing season has caused a problem in the county. A number of blue flag beaches in the county that did not get much use by the public during the bathing season still have to have lifeguard cover during this season to maintain blue flag status.
Director of services for the Belmullet Electoral Area, Martin Keating, said the difficulty at beaches like Clare Island and Dooega had been known at the start of the summer and the council had worked out an agreement on those. But the council was also looking to work with the different agencies to agree a solution as there were other beaches where lifeguard cover would be needed. Beaches in particular that are popular for adventure sports and other water based sports that did not have a blue flag status were areas they wanted to look at to ensure the public there were adequately protected.
