Combine the skills and expertise of our employees with new technologies to drive quality, reliability and continuous improvement, maintaining excellence and staying true to our values of Professionalism, Quality, Respect, Innovation, Trust and Collaboration.

Focus Area 5 builds on previous work of developing new ways of working and thinking, using existing and emerging technologies to transform and simplify work practices. It promotes innovation and new service delivery, incorporating digitisation and increased use of technology to improve the working lives of employees.

Irish Lights is committed to delivering its services in an agile, efficient, innovative and effective manner. The continued success of Irish Lights depends on the commitment and professionalism of our employees. Recognising the significant changes in our operations, culture and employee profile over the term of the last strategic plan (2018 – 2024) this new strategy outlines our planned investment in our people and work practices as we enter our next phase of development.

The new strategy will see a move towards assurance with the introduction of a health and safety, environmental and quality Integrated Management System (IMS) to achieve and maintain certification to ISO 45001, ISO 14001 and ISO 9001 which will improve operational efficiencies, ensure regulatory compliance, and promote a proactive risk culture and drive continuous improvement.

We will continue to empower our employees to develop their capabilities to deliver on the emerging maritime safety, sustainability, data analysis and technology skills requirements to deliver on our future vision. We will also focus on enhancing the work environment, and optimising our structures, processes, work practices and physical environment to meet the objectives of the strategic plan.

People Strategy

Our people are our greatest resource. Working together, we will live our values through our actions as we strive to reach our individual and collective potential. We will work collaboratively and flexibly in pursuit of our common goals and create an inclusive environment. This strategy seeks to preserve and enhance our workplace culture, which is rooted in our values of Professionalism, Respect, Trust, Quality, Innovation and Collaboration.

Investment in our people is key to our future success. We will systematically and strategically identify, develop, recruit and retain talent from diverse backgrounds. We will continue to support career development and provide our people with opportunities for development, knowledge sharing and quality enhancement.

Acknowledging the importance of strategic, inspirational and effective leadership in achieving our objectives, we will invest in the development of our current and future senior managers.

We will enhance our communication through regular engagement forums, such as workshops, to build relationships across Irish Lights and provide opportunities for collaboration.

Small innovations can have big impacts. We will empower our people to innovate and think creatively about how we work and live sustainably. We will create opportunities and resources for initiatives that support ‘next generation’ practices for enhancing quality, excellence and agility across all our activities, and developing employee engagement and wellbeing.

Health and Safety Strategy

Safety will continue to be prioritised and monitored with an emphasis on compliance with health and safety regulations. We will continue to assess ourselves against best practice and requirements using the live safety legislation register. This strategy will broaden the focus from carrying out safety inspections at lighthouse stations to carrying out audits of safety systems and procedures across a range of operational activities, focusing initially on high-risk areas which will provide assurance of safety management systems in place.

To reinforce this new approach, we have commenced the introduction of health and safety management system to meet the requirements of ISO 45001 under an overarching integrated management system. Going forward, the auditing of our Safety Management System (SMS) against the requirements of ISO 45001 will provide assurances that our SMS and safety related policies, procedures, risk assessments are meeting our statutory safety requirements.

The adoption and implementation of an Environmental Management System certified to the ISO 14001 standard, is an agreed strategic priority for the organisation, and will provide assurances that our environmental policy and procedures are meeting regulatory obligations and government climate action targets along with our wider sustainability objectives and ambitions.

Operational Effectiveness and Resilience Strategy

To enhance operational efficiency, we will implement a comprehensive strategy focused on optimising resource allocation, leveraging advanced technology, and fostering a culture of continuous improvement. This approach will include the interrogation of the AtoN monitoring system to review trends, and anomalies with a view to reducing outages. This will allow us to make better use of our maintenance resources and allow further improvements to the planning and scheduling of works.

We will invest in employee training in key technical areas such as monitoring software and data management that will enhance operational planning, enabling our teams to respond swiftly and effectively to operational challenges.

We will continue to apply innovative technical applications to allow remote interventions where feasible. We will continue to add resilience and contingency into AtoN designs providing standby backup. Work package delivery will to be reviewed in the context of most efficient delivery and bringing consistency across our AtoN infrastructure.

Additionally, we will closely monitor and measure efficiency gains and identify areas for further improvement. By prioritising these initiatives, we aim to reinforce our commitment to providing reliable maritime navigation with in-built resilience while maximising the value of our operational resources.

Data Strategy

Irish Lights generates data of national importance and relies on internally generated data to inform its broad range of activities. The organisation continues to demonstrate a strong appetite and interest in developing and improving its data related activities and data is identified as a key strategic asset supporting the overall Irish Lights strategy.

Irish Lights has developed a Data Strategy which will be rolled out in parallel with this Strategy. The vision for our Data Strategy is to provide an authoritative single source of truth for all Irish Lights data. The data strategy and the related work programme will continually evolve. The added value is in the continuous change and evolving nature of data processes and activities and the organisation’s ability to adapt and capitalise on these changes.

To deliver the data strategy, Irish lights will develop and continually review and revise a development roadmap for its data systems and associated business processes. This will be organisation wide involving all employees to ensure timely and reliable data collection, data accuracy and currency. Clear data ownership and adherence to good practice, industry standards and Irish Lights policies will be followed to deliver the vision. Key elements of the work programme will include:

• Working with business and functional areas to identify and document current work processes and key data resources used or generated as part of business processes.
• Completing regular data audits and updating data catalogues to ensure all data repositories and assets are identified.
• Identifying requirements and opportunities for business process automation, data rationalisation, systems rationalisation, integration and/or enhancement.
• Supporting all employees to identify opportunities and document requirements for enhanced systems, user interfaces, reports and dashboards for internal and external stakeholders.
• Establishing and maintaining an Information Asset Register to identify, document, manage and protect all data that is important to the organisation.

Irish Lights will continue to be flexible and adapt to meet current and emerging data related challenges and opportunities, continue to make data publicly available in line with the requirements and spirit of Open Data, INSPIRE, and other relevant and emerging data standards or platforms. Quality Irish Lights data sets will continue to be a key focus and enabler for efficient and effective operational delivery and provision of services to all stakeholders.

Commercial Strategy

Where compatible with the requirements of our core service, commercial income is derived from use of the resources required to deliver that service. Our primary sources of commercial income are reserve ship capacity, buoy services and property. However Irish Lights continuously seeks to expand compatible commercial opportunities as a means of reducing the funding burden on stakeholders.

Stakeholder Engagement

Delivery of the correct mix of AtoN Services to our users and value for money to our funding stakeholders requires agile and effective communications with all stakeholders. Maintenance of this essential relationship with stakeholders is an important part of this strategy. This includes:

• Regular meetings with line Government Departments in Ireland and UK.
• Close relationships and collaboration with other relevant Government Departments and Agencies.
• Annual AtoN User, AtoN Provider and Joint User Group meetings.
• Peer reviewed 5 yearly AtoN Review process across Ireland and the UK.
• Feedback from our coast teams and attendants.
• Online internet and social media presence.
• Stakeholder surveys.

Corporate Governance

Irish Lights is committed to the highest levels of Corporate Governance following Irish and UK Codes and Standards. The CEO, as Accounting Officer, is responsible to the Board for ensuring compliance and our Corporate Governance is overseen by the Board and the Audit and Risk Committee. Clear guidance is provided to all employees through the Employee Handbook. This strategy will be delivered in accordance with best practice in Corporate Governance.

Strategic Objectives 2025-2030

People

• Create the culture and environment where all employees can develop and contribute to the success of Irish Lights
• Promote a diverse and inclusive workforce which is motivated and engaged to meet the current and future needs of Irish Lights
• Invest in leadership and management structures to meet the challenges facing a modern maritime organisation.
• Support employee innovation to contribute to the development of new practices across our activities.
• Enhance belonging and connection through strong communication and engagement models.

Health and Safety

• Ensure continuous improvement, compliance with updated standards, risk management, and a strong safety culture throughout the organisation at all levels.

Operational Effectiveness and Resilience

• Optimise operational efficiency, reliability and resource allocation, where possible levering advanced technologies.

Data and Information Management

• Provide an authoritative single source of truth for all Irish Lights data.
• Implement the Data Strategy
• Implement development roadmap for data systems and associated business processes

Commercial

• Position Irish Lights as a high-quality provider of commercial services targeting markets where we can capitalise on our expertise, experience, and infrastructure and deliver value to our stakeholders without compromising our ability to deliver our statutory services.

Stakeholder Communications

• Ensure effective and responsive communications with all stakeholders including Government Departments, Agencies, Local Authorities, Ports, Shipping and Fishing Industries, Leisure users and Coastal communities.