Michael Collins (Cork South West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I will make my question short. The Whiddy Island disaster took place 42 years ago, when a massive explosion occurred on a French oil tanker, taking the lives of 51 people. On Saturday night we heard the radio documentary "Fire in the Sky", which relived that night for quite a lot of people. It is well known now that no rescue took place because of catastrophic safety failures and that the regulatory system in place in the run-up to the disaster was appalling. The Irish, French and British families concerned have had to live with this, together with the fallout afterwards, with no resolution.

Throughout this horrendous ordeal for the families over the past 42 years, the State has never apologised to these families for the appalling failures in the administration of justice and the failure to implement regulation. Will the Minister speak to the Taoiseach and the Tánaiste and issue an apology to the families of the Whiddy Island tragedy today? Will he meet the representatives of the French-Irish Association of Relatives and Friends of the Betelgeuse to help them in their goal to have the High Court change the victim's death certificates to unlawful deaths?

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