Mr. Justin Delaney:

As Mr. Pinkster stated, I was the first naval architect who did the stability test on the Mary Kate in May 2009. Mr. C.J. Gaffney did not feel safe on the vessel. It nearly capsized on a couple of occasions. To make clear, the Mary Kate was a state-of-the-art vessel; it was a more modern version of Mr. Gaffney's previous, older beam trawler. He never had any worries stability-wise so this was a big shock to Mr. Gaffney. I carried out the inclining test with a surveyor from the MSO as a witness. The results were shocking to everybody because this was a state-of-the-art beam trawler which came from Germany with all the certifications from a renowned classification society, Germanischer Lloyd Classification Society, and from the German marine survey office. The vessel was so far out that we went to every extreme to try to understand why the boat was so wrong. We even thought that we must have made a mistake in the first test. We did follow-up tests. Mr. Gaffney contacted the Dutch designer of the boat. The designer told him that perhaps there was trapped water underneath the fishing hold that could explain the weight increase. Mr. Gaffney and his crew then spent 16 hours, for over a month, gutting the whole fishing hold. They took out 21.8 tonnes. After that, the vessel was similar to what was supposedly stated in the German stability booklet. Of course, the vessel was even worse stability wise. We knew then that something was wrong from the beginning. In the same year, 2009, its German sister vessel, Destiny, had changed ownership and undergone a stability test and it was also found to have had the same stability failings. The Mary Kate alone was enough to ring the alarm bells but now we had two vessels. At the time, we were thinking that there was going to be a huge EU investigation. It was bound to happen. If one thinks of the car industry, if there is a problem with a series of cars, what do they do? They recall all the cars. An investigation had to happen. Yet we are still here in 2024.

I have written countless letters through the years to German ministers and the Dutch Safety Board, which carried out a report on two lost Dutch beam trawlers. I tried to get it to include the story of theMary Kate. Just two weeks ago, I wrote a letter to the Netherlands Shipping Inspectorate because, during recent research, we identified another Dutch sister vessel to the Mary Kate that we suspect is also one of the incorrect sister ships. There were 11 sister vessels built and three of them have been lengthened like the Mary Kate. This is not a mistake that somebody could make when they were built. This is something more serious. There is no other way of looking at it - these vessels were given stability booklets and information that was not correct. The same information was taken from the other correct sister vessels and it was said, "Okay, here you go. Nobody will know." It was passed like that.The issue only came to light when Mr. Gaffney began to operate the Mary Kate. The North Sea, where the other sister vessels operate, is less forgiving than the Irish Sea, for example, which is flat. There are peaks and troughs in the Irish Sea. For beam trawling, it is normal for the ear to sometimes get caught on the bottom. It was only when Mr. Gaffney started operating the Mary Katethat true stability deficiencies became apparent. This is how it all came about.

I am totally shocked that an official EU investigation still has not happened. Other vessels are operating that are putting their crews at risk, especially for beam trawlers, which engage in the most dangerous type of fishing. If there are beam trawlers that should not be operating because they have been deficient from day one, how does that look going forward? This is a huge case in terms of maritime safety and justice for the Gaffneys. This should have been resolved in 2010 when it all came about. I hope members can all understand the suffering the Gaffneys have gone through and the ramifications this case will have for maritime safety. I hope the Gaffneys can finally get compensation to move on with their lives. In the meantime, an EU investigation can happen. I have all the information. We can learn from this and make sure it never happens again.