Mr. Michael Kingston:

No, the board must be disbanded. It is a matter for the Department to establish an independent unit through legislation. I am sure there is legislation that governs the aviation unit and the rail unit. Potentially, it would be a cut and paste, tweak job that would take half a day. It is as straightforward as that. The board must be disbanded. That is no disrespect to the members of the board or any previous members of the board who have served. They have done their best within the system in which they operated. However, as a nation, we did not put an appropriate system in place. That is not fair to them or to the investigators who have done their best, but if they are getting €2,000, €3,000 or €4,000 per investigation, they cannot do a great job. It is inadequate. Also, they must be full-time to build up corporate knowledge, and training has been a big issue. This nation has not attended the Marine Accident Investigators International Forum since 2008, even though the review group in 1998 recommended that it was essential.

To answer the Deputy's question with a point, after going the long way around, the board cannot do this. The board must be disbanded and we need a principal investigator with two assistants.