Mr. Michael Kingston:

To assist the concerns of the Cathaoirleach Gníomhach and to answer the Deputy, it can be done within the parameters of the current legislative discussion, which, as I said in answer to Senator Craughwell, centres around recommendations from a report that has not been published. That report has undoubtedly made findings about the manner in which we have been investigating maritime tragedies. Otherwise we would not be here. That includes the overarching point of Deputy Mattie McGrath about the transposition of the 2009 directive. The directive dictated that we should investigate marine casualties competently and independently, which is what this proposed legislation is now genuinely attempting to do at last, following the European judgment which confirmed that we did not transpose the directive correctly. What happened in the meantime was that investigations were, without question, not carried out correctly, and that includes the tragedy which befell John O'Brien and Pat Esmonde off Helvick Head. What is deeply concerning from the Róisín Lacey report, referred to by Captain Clinch, which forms the basis of this legislation, is that the Department knew and acknowledged to Róisín Lacey in an interview that it could not be on the MCIB anymore, and then remained on the board. When people such as Anne-Marie O'Brien, John O'Brien's sister, wrote to the Department asking for answers about the failed investigation, which we now know was not done competently, the answer from the very people who were acquiescing in a board they knew they should not be members of was that the Department could not enter correspondence because the MCIB was independent. That is an incredible situation, considering the 1998 report that gave rise to the 2000 Act stated specifically that we were to show empathy to those who had suffered loss and that there should be at least two individuals appointed in the Department to liaise with bereaved families, yet they were batted off time and again as if they did not exist. That is a massive failing by this State. The case to which the Deputy referred is not the only one. It is for that reason the Captain Clinch report must be disclosed in relation to the fundamental rights of those who have died and their families. A fundamental right under the European Convention on Human Rights requires that those family members get to the bottom of what happened. That is also in the public interest.