Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 1 March 2023

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport

General Scheme of the Merchant Shipping (Investigation of Marine Accidents) Bill 2022: Discussion (Resumed)

Photo of Ruairi Ó MurchúRuairi Ó Murchú (Louth, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I apologise. I had to take a call related to job losses in my constituency.

Mr. Kingston has a long history regarding this issue. As we are all aware - a number of colleagues spoke about this - we have not had full sight of the Lacey and Clinch reports. It goes without saying we need that to happen as soon as possible. Mr. Kingston detailed where he sees possibilities that this legislation will not cut the mustard; for example, where we are talking about the types of vessel, right through to the ability to re-examine and specific issues around the investigator and the board.

I will focus on how exactly Mr. Kingston sees it. On the situation of an investigator in particular, who would the person who compels be? Would the Minister compel the investigator to be available? We are talking about the report as it relates to Caitríona Lucas and the fact there were a number of mistakes, some of which could have been rectified by an investigator being there. I ask Mr. Kingston to detail some of what exactly that would look like and how it would work, as well as the particular issues and mistakes made on the basis of this not having previously happened.

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