Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Thursday, 19 September 2024

Committee on Public Petitions

Decisions on Public Petitions Received

1:30 pm

Photo of Martin BrowneMartin Browne (Tipperary, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

No. P00013/24 is titled "Justice and recognition for the state abused", and is from Mx Corwyn Bertrand-Fuchs. It states:

I want recognition for those abused in the state-run homes. I want a public apology and the last abusive children's home still open closed. Separate public petition underway.

The actions requested by the petitioner are recognition for those abused in the State-run homes, a public apology and the last abusive children's home still open to be closed. The background here is that correspondence from the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth was forwarded to the petitioner in June 2024. The secretariat received a response from the petitioner on 4 July 2024.

The committee recommends that the correspondence from the petitioner be forwarded to the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth for comment within 14 days. The petition is in its early days and we have received a response in respect of the petitioner's submission to the Department outlining the action plan for survivors of the former residents of mother and baby and county home institutions.

I am still not convinced that the response deals with the specific situation in which the petitioner finds themselves. I suggest that we ask the petitioner to outline if they feel the same. If that is the case, I suggest that the response include all scenarios and homes being covered. It seems to be the case here that the petitioner does not seem to be happy that everything is being covered. While we are forwarding the Department's response to the petitioner, I also suggest that we get back in touch with the Department to request that it respond to the petitioner's specific scenario and determine if we can find out information concerning the location where the petitioner was resident and see if that home or institution, whichever it may be, comes under the remit of this committee or the Department itself. Is that agreed? Agreed.

No. P00028/24, titled "Credit unions", is from Mr. Brian Gould. It states: "My Petition is to amend the Credit Union Act 1997, Section 56B, which covers the Nomination Committee of Credit Unions." The background here is that the secretariat forwarded the correspondence from the petitioner to the Department of Finance for comment within 14 days, after it was discussed at our committee meeting in June, and a response was received. The committee recommends publishing the response from the Department of Finance and that the correspondence from the Department be forwarded to the petitioner for comment within 14 days. There has been considerable over-and-back communication between the petitioner, the Department and the staff here. In the latest response from the Department, particular reference is made to the nominating committee as requested by the petitioner. The same is the case regarding the appeals process. We will await the petitioner's response to the details provided by the Department before making any other recommendations, if people are happy with that. Is that agreed? Agreed.

No. P00033/24 is titled “Toxic Fumes on Aer Lingus Flights - Severe and Increasing danger to public health and safety - Urgent” and is from Captain Tom O'Riordain. It states:

On the 5th of June 2023, whilst operating as a Captain on an Aer Lingus flight I was poisoned by toxic fumes and rushed to Beaumont hospital by emergency ambulance, where I stayed for five days. I had reported fumes on this particular aircraft when operating the previous day. We were assured the issue had been resolved, it was not. Aer Lingus failed to locate and isolate the source of the fumes. The aircraft was released for service in an unsafe state, putting both crew and public at high risk. After my poisoning, oil was found in the engine of the aircraft and the engine was removed.

Aer Lingus have experienced 22 such fume events between January 2023 and January 2024. This is verifiable from internal data, along with information that the trend is increasing. This is a public danger issue, in that both crew and passengers may have experienced toxic fume exposure without their knowledge. The Department of Transport and A.A.I.U have failed to class my particular incident as a "serious incident" in alignment with I.C.A.O Annex 13, definition of a "serious incident". They have yet to confirm whether all 22 fume incidents were investigated and the outcomes.

The background to this is that the secretariat forwarded the correspondence from the petitioner to the Department of Transport for comment within 14 days, as agreed at the meeting of 20 June 2024, and received a response including an attachment from the air accident investigation unit, AAIU.

The committee recommends that the correspondence from the Department of Transport be forwarded to the petitioner for comment within 14 days and that the correspondence from the air accident investigation unit be forwarded to the petitioner for comment within 14 days.

There is a lot of detail in this petition. I thank the petitioner for bringing it forward. We have received responses in the course of addressing this petition from the Irish Aviation Authority, IAA, the air accident investigation unit, Aer Lingus and the Department of Transport. There are several factors to take into account here. These include the prohibition on the IAA, AAIU and the Department from discussing aviation safety occurrences, reports, safety sensitive information, any information related to protected disclosures, certification on air conditioning systems and other matters. There are also matters in hand regarding the involvement of the appropriate regulatory bodies. This committee must take note of this situation because our terms of reference preclude us from considering a petition that deals with matters more appropriate to a regulatory public body or a body established for the purpose of redress.

As I have outlined, given that this matter is an ongoing case with the IAA, we can no longer proceed with the petition as far as I am concerned.

Does anybody else have a comment on this or is that agreed?

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