Council Advises Extra Caution If Heading To The Beach This Week

Anyone heading to the beach during the good weather is asked to familiarise themselves with their surroundings.

The country is set for some more warm weather this week and temperatures are expected to reach the high 20s towards the weekend.

Wexford County Council is asking the public to use the lifeguarded beaches where possible and to contact officials if there are any issues.

Director of Services Caroline Godkin says you can never take anything for granted by the sea:

"During the summer, we might see people engaging in activities that they might not normally do so if we have particularly warm summers here, people do tend to venture to the beach that maybe don't go very often.

"It's really important to familiarise yourself with our tides and currents. We have a lot of soft lying coastline with sand dunes that can change quite a lot.

"Just because you've visited the beach before, that doesn't mean it's gonna be the same the next time you go there so really important to become familiar."

Beach goers are being reminded to visit the seaside at lifeguarded areas between 11am and 7pm.

There are now 6 Blue Flag beaches in the county, Morriscastle, Duncannon, Curracloe, Ballinesker, Carne and Rosslare Harbour.

Caroline says these beaches are best served by their resources and provide the safest chance to get out on the water:

"We'd also advise people to try and go to our lifeguarded beaches of which we have several around the county.

"Particularly those that are not hugely familiar with the sea conditions and may be travelling with young people or those that are vulnerable.

"They will be lifeguarded now from 11am to 7pm every day now until the end of August."

We're being asked to contact the coastguard if we see any issues while heading to the beach this week.

Caroline says while lifeguards may be your first port of call, other emergency services are available for bigger situations:

"Alert the coastguard once the incident is located on the water.

"We do have lifebuoys on a lot of our beaches so people can do a landshore rescue by throwing that out to somebody but if people are on paddleboards or kayaks and they do get blown out, then it would be the coastguard for that emergency report."

That report was funded by the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme.