Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I am pleased the Deputy has raised the issue because it gives me an opportunity once again to express the sympathy of everyone in this House to the Bolger family. I was at the funeral, which was one of the saddest funerals I have ever attended. It was difficult to see three coffins of three healthy men, experienced fishermen, two of them farmers. It was an extraordinarily sad day and that continues to be the case for the family. They have the sympathies of everyone in the House.

I made it clear that it was too early to debate and discuss a policy response to the tragedy in the middle of the grief of the community. That is why I said very little about the policy response but it is clear that we must learn lessons from ongoing tragedies in fishing communities. There was a similar tragedy in Clare last summer when a relatively small boat was involved in moving pots before bad weather was expected, which is something similar to what happened in Waterford, where the boat capsized and sank and people lost their lives. In the case of the Bolger brothers, they all had life jackets on and emergency position indicating radio beacon, EPIRB, in the boat. My understanding is that it was in the bow of the boat which did not submerge and therefore did not trigger the emergency signal. It was an incredibly unlucky and difficult situation in a boat that was well equipped from a safety point of view and had experienced fishermen on board.

That said, I accept the point. I have said for many months that we must introduce personal location devices as part of life jackets for fishermen so that when they fall into the water that even if they do remain afloat that they do not die of hypothermia by not alerting the rescue services quickly. This is another tragic lesson along those lines.

On 8 July the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, Deputy Varadkar, and I will launch a marine safety initiative in Union Hall. It is an appropriate location to do that because of what happened there last year. The answer to Deputy Ellis’s question will be very clear in a couple of weeks’ time.

See this speech in context