Gerard Craughwell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

The Minister is welcome to the committee. To follow on from my colleague, the Cathaoirleach Gníomhach, the issue of oversight is something that causes me great concern, particularly when we are talking about accidents in the maritime space. I recently engaged with the Health and Safety Authority, HSA, on the accident that cost Catriona Lucas her life. A file was prepared for the Director of Public Prosecutions, DPP, by the HSA and the DPP has declined to proceed with any charges. For me, it is serious that somebody spent a lot of time investigating and decided that something needed to go to the DPP. Having read the rationale of the DPP, I do not understand how the case was set aside.

Of greater concern to me is the second paragraph of the letter from the HSA, which deals specifically with the life jackets that were issued to members of the Irish Coast Guard. We have video and documentary evidence of complaints being raised with the Irish Coast Guard since 2015 with respect to the life jackets. To put it mildly, some people said they were dangerous to use. There is a strong belief among Irish Coast Guard volunteers that Catriona Lucas’s life jacket, which was not tested and nobody knows where it is, would have turned her on her face rather than on her back when she was in the water. This is a serious allegation that has been made by people who were on the ground and we have no way of knowing the truth of it. The HSA tells me it had the life jackets tested, through the British system, with the manufacturers and that they conformed to EU standards. Is the Minister concerned that nobody spoke to the volunteers who reported diligently, from 2015, the dangerous situation regarding the use of those life jackets? There is video evidence from Donegal and there is documentary evidence, including photographs, from Cork, Dingle, Cleggan in Galway, and Mayo, that on average, two out of every five life jackets resulted in inappropriate or wrong inflation which either caused injury to the wearer or caused the wearer to be turned onto their face. Would the Minister have a concern with the fact that these people were not engaged with?