Mr. Michael Kingston:

The unit will decide what is to be investigated. There are important reporting mechanisms and it is an offence not to report an incident. I will not go into all the mechanics of that but it is provided for in the proposed legislation, as it was in the previous legislation. In the incident referenced, and every incident that took place under the old regime, we fell down in not having a competent investigative system to deal with investigations. We had part-time investigators - we went through all this previously on pre-legislative scrutiny - and a part-time board. We had a compromised board because departmental officials were on it, including those who set regulations. They were effectively investigating their own work in that the first thing done in an investigation is to find out what happened, what the regulatory framework behind it was, whether things were being enforced properly and how they can be improved. The board was investigating its own work, which was the first major shortcoming.

As Deputy Crowe referenced, panel investigators were paid a measly amount of money in comparison with the full-time aviation and rail body. In 2019, for ten incidents, €27,000 was allocated for investigations in the field, which was €2,700 per incident, when six people died. The way things are, you cannot even get out of Dublin these days for €2,700 to do almost a day's work. The money was not there to gather the information. There were also no mechanics for the preservation of evidence; no memorandums of understanding with the Garda, the Civil Defence and the Health and Safety Authority; and no protocols in place even though they are very important. Such matters have not been included in this Bill as comprehensively as they were in the legislation in respect of the Lacey report. That needs to be fixed. Full-time investigators with proper qualifications need to be at the ready and protocols need to be in place, including a protocol between the proposed accident investigation unit and the Department, which, in fairness to the drafters, is in the legislation in respect of independence. Not only should there be independence in practice, away from Leeson Lane in a separate office, but the public should see that a protocol is in place. Those key issues will help to resolve those historical failures.