BY AMY ROSE HARTE

UP to ¤5,000 worth of RNLI resources were wasted in the early hours of yesterday morning when a wild goose chase got underway for two youths who took out a boat off the Bun An Inbhir coast.

A four-hour search involving the Sligo-based coastguard helicopter, the Arranmore RNLI lifeboat and the Bunbeg coastguard proved fruitless. It transpired the youths were asleep at home.

A major rescue operation got underway at 2am when local fishermen failed to locate a boat at the pier near Derrybeg.

It is understood that two young men, who were believed to be intoxicated at the time, took a boat out around midnight and headed in the direction of Inishboffin. The boat was found washed up near Bun an Inbhir shortly afterwards and Gardai alerted coastguard services when the youths could not be found.

The Malin Head Coastguard began co-ordinating a search operation involving three strands of rescue teams from Arranmore, Bunbeg and Sligo and the search continued for over four hours. It was cancelled at around 6am when Gardai were informed the two men were at home, upon leaving the scene earlier.

Nora Flanagan, PRO for Arranmore RNLI, confirmed that the incident cost RNLI in the region of ¤5,000 but insisted it was not a waste of resources.

"We're also talking about getting seven crew members out of their beds. But the crew have to go from whenever they get the shout. We would say that when a lifeboat is called out we take it as face value that there is an emergency. I wouldn't say it was a waste of resources because sometimes you do go out and rescue somebody and other times you might go out and it can be a bit of wild goose chase."