A summary of the costs of the Commissioners of Irish Lights service for year ended 31 March 1999, divided between the main operational areas, is shown in fig 1.

RUNNING COSTS

Service running costs for the year totalled IR£11,092,000. Included in this figure are redundancy costs of IR£266,000, and payroll costs of IR£6,707,000.

Allowing for inflation, the real operating cost of the Service has progressively and substantially reduced since 1992-3, as is demonstrated in fig 2. This reduction in costs has been achieved through technological and managerial developments such as lighthouse automation, solarisation, and rationalisation, whilst maintaining the level of performance and reliability of aids to navigation required by all classes of mariners.

The reduction in costs achieved by the Commissioners of Irish Lights, and by Trinity House Lighthouse Service and the Northern Lighthouse Board in Great Britain, has resulted in a substantial reduction in real terms in the rate of light dues levied on commercial shipping.

PENSIONS
Pension costs for year ended 31 March 1999 totalled £2,577,000.

CAPITAL EXPENDITURE
Capital expenditure by the Commissioners in 1998-9 totalled IR£1,376,000. Major projects included the completion of new leading lights at Corlis Point on the Shannon Estuary, the first phase of the refurbishment and conversion to solar power of Blackrock Mayo Lighthouse, and the installation of Differential Global Positioning System transmitting and monitoring systems at Tory Island, Loophead, and Mizen Head. Articles on these projects were published in Beam 1998-9.

QUALITY OF SERVICE
The performance of Aids to Navigation is measured by comparison with the minimum standards recommended by the International Association of Marine Aids to Navigation and Lighthouse Authorities (iala) of which Irish Lights is a member. Fig 3 shows the degree to which the various catagories of Aids to Navigation provided by the Commissioners of Irish Lights functioned correctly, based on a three year rolling average, compared with the iala performance targets.

EMPLOYEE NUMBERS
The complement of permanent employees on 31 March 1999 was: Lighthouse Attendants (part-time) 77, Lightfloat Attendant Masters (part-time) 4, Lighthouse Tender 50, Civil Engineering Coast Workforce 28, Lighthouse Depot 115, Irish Lights Office 63, making a total of 256 full-time and 81 part-time employees. In addition, casual workers are employed around the coast on a day to day basis as required.