Mr. Michael Kingston:

I thank the Deputy for his questions. He has identified the pertinent points in the legislation. It is good that they are on record from the directive. It is a matter for each member but the committee will agree unanimously with him that €2,700 for the field work in an investigation into someone's death is a staggering failure when we compare it with aviation and rail. We can see the figures set out in my briefing note.

The figures speak for themselves. One need only analyse the rail set-up and the aviation set-up. They are professional and, therefore, they are preventing death. Then we get to the marine sector. It is a little like what the review group found in 1998 and 2000. The view was that we should have international best practice and that was what should be established. They spent a great deal of taxpayers' money flying all over the world. Then, at the end of the report, the view was that, given Ireland is a small country and the maritime community is a small part of it, we should forget about all of that and simply have a different system here. That is not good enough. Iceland is a far smaller country but those involved work properly. We must remember that our maritime sector is extremely important at the moment in the context of Brexit. Moreover, with renewable energy, the footprint of Ireland is ten times the size of our landmass. It is critical that we invest in this area.

In the meantime, to answer the question from Deputy Crowe about the current system, the set-up is part time, amateur and not good enough. We can provide funding to get an experienced investigator to help the board in the meantime. That is not difficult. They are out there. We could second an official from the Marine Accident Investigation Branch in the United Kingdom or from another European nation. That would keep the show on the road for the time being.