Pat Buckley (Cork East, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

This is going on a long time. It was 1992 or something when this started. I will take up to 2011, I think. The document here has 41 pages. I see the work that has gone into this. The way this family has been treated is diabolical. I will read out some quotes because it is interesting that they are still fighting in 2024. I am reading from p.11:

When we met the top two officials from Fisheries Department with acting Minister of Foreign Affairs, they told us they don’t talk to other Departments and when asked by the Minister to attend another meeting with Department of Transport and Foreign affairs to come up with a joint plan, they replied you’ve had your meeting and we won’t be attending anymore meetings and left.

I quote from page 12:

On Wednesday morning the 26th of January 2011, we attended a meeting which had been organized by MEP Pat the Cope Gallagher [and] MEP Liam Aylward in Brussels, which they could not attend as they had to be in the Dail for a vote. Present were Maja Kirchner Deputy Head of Commissioner Maria Damanaki Maritime Affairs and Fisheries, Miriam Schoeps Policy Advisor – Legal Affairs, Brendan O’Shea European Commission DG Maritime Affairs and Fishing, Laura Real assistant to Liam Aylward MEP and an assistant to Pat the Cope Gallagher, MEP.

Our party was made up of myself, C J Gaffney, my father Christy Gaffney, Hugh Kennedy Marine Lawyer, Justin Delaney, MSc Naval Architecture and Jakob Pinkster, MSc Naval Architecture. They told us they would do everything they could to help us including contacting the Irish Department of Fisheries and they would also contact Simon Coveney.

They said they would do this because they couldn’t award compensation to an individual otherwise, they would do it immediately, but that Ireland could use funding out of the European Fisheries Fund and if this money had already been allocated, they could make a representation requiring extra funding to cover any compensation they would give us.

Our case is unique and does not come under any bureaucratic rule or regulation. Based on the facts outlined in this letter, why did the Department of Agriculture, Food and Marine, given the force majeure of our case as outlined above, not seek a derogation from Brussels to compensate us from the European Fisheries Fund,

There was money there in a fund. When it was over, the delegation was told that even if the fund was spent, there was an opportunity to reapply. For the people outside, this is crazy. They have been flip-flopping around for years on this. The family, the business and everything is destroyed. It is going over three jurisdictions between Ireland, Germany and Holland and all seem to be passing the buck. To be fair to the case workers and secretariat on this committee, to obtain so much information that was not there before is amazing. It is very disingenuous when you see it written in black and white who was there and when it was done when it could have been resolved a long time ago. I recall a number of other vessels that came out of the same place with the same defect and we were worried about their safety.

I do not know what date this was flagged up but page 15 reads:

The Department of Transport did make both the European Commission and all other member states aware of potential safety concerns with other similar fishing vessels at the time.

At least the Department acknowledges that there was something wrong. Going back to what I originally quoted, there was a system there where this could have been sorted, but we have a Department saying, "We spoke to you once, and that is it." It replied, "You have had your meeting and we will not be attending any more meetings", and left it at that. It is absolutely shocking. It is very disingenuous of the Department. I would be very interested in what will be the best route of action for this. I thank the Chair for his indulgence.