The role of technology used by Roscommon Civil Defence in search and rescue operations has evolved in recent years.
That's according to the county's first female Civil Defence Officer Claire Keane who took up the role in November of last year.
Speaking at a special press briefing yesterday the Ballintubber native explained the organisation has assisted in 12 missing persons operations since January 2021 across counties Roscommon, Mayo, Galway and Leitrim.
Around 50 volunteers form the voluntary group are trained to assist in both land and water searches.
The crew last night carried out a special training operation in Donamon and Claire says the group also uses drones and SARMAN Search Management Software to help locate missing people.
''Last year we had 12 missing persons searches that we were involved in, so over time we are seeing more callouts. We have the boat unit for water based units and then we have trained search managers and trained search technicians to go out on missing persons searches. We have our all terrain vehicle which can go in different weather conditions or going down into forests, places you wouldn't get a normal vehicle. Then we have communications van so we have high technology inside that where you can do different mapping.''
