Kieran McCarthy MLA said: “The sea can be an extremely dangerous place especially if people do not take the necessary precautions. These boys were lucky that a passer-by spotted them off the coast otherwise we might have been hearing about an even worse tragedy. If young people want to use boats or sail, they should ideally be supervised by adults.
“No matter the size of the boat people should always have lifejackets as well as having someone monitoring where you are, so that if people get into difficulties they can be rescued. Even if the weather looks good when you set off and the sea seems calm, this can often rapidly change for the worse.
“The coastguard service does such a remarkable job but they can not be everywhere at once, so I would urge people to take all the safety measures they can.”
ENDS