I don't know what an Irish SAR APP says but I do know that the way things are run there makes interoperability with SAR partners that little bit more difficult. This is the sort of thing that held back UK CivSAR for 40 years and finally got sorted just in the final weeks before the current contract started in 2015.
Another matter that might be relevant is the tasking responsibility and how that dovetails into the regulatory regime. It appears to still be the case that tasking is the responsibility of the Irish Coastguard and not the IAA at ARCC Shannon. (MoU 2010?)
In the UK context, when ARCC task an aircraft it is not longer CAT but becomes SAR flight and different rules of flight apply.
Does that distinction exist in Irish SAR Ops? How is it triggered? Was R116's top cover task SAR flight? Were they CAT or were they free to operate under a SAR regulatory regime?