Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent)
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All amendments have been disallowed.

Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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I move: "That the Bill do now pass."

Darren O'Rourke (Meath East, Sinn Fein)
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The Minister must know where Sinn Féin stands on this Bill. We have articulated the position repeatedly over recent months and days. I am disappointed that our amendments have been ruled out of order, but so be it. I am more disappointed that the Minister did not table similar amendments. We firmly believe that now is the opportunity to get the area of marine casualty investigations right.

There is a long and sorry history of missed opportunities, whether it be in the 1998 report, the 2010 Róisín Lacey report or the 2020 Clinch report. We have the Róisín Lacey report. It explains clearly what needed and needs to be done. Instead, the State defended the indefensible at a European court and, as expected, failed.

We have deep concerns about the fact the Bill does not go further. As I said on Committee Stage, we hear the commitments from the Minister to publish the Clinch report at the end of quarter 1. There is a big question mark over that. It is subject to approval by the Attorney General. There is a further commitment to deliver the substantive legislation that has been called for across the political spectrum. Again, there is a huge question mark over that in terms of its being subject to approval by Cabinet.

There are clear weaknesses in marine casualty investigation in Ireland. This was the legislation that could have resolved it. We had 18 months to get it right but the Minister has not got it right and has not taken the opportunity to give cast-iron guarantees in this legislation that, within a given timeframe, he would deliver the necessary reforms. In that context, we cannot support the Bill.

Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent)
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I have great respect for the Minister and know he is a decent man but this is a whitewash of the highest order. It is a half-baked and cobbled-together attempt by officials in the Department of Transport who have wanted to keep this situation under wraps ever since the Whiddy Island disaster. We have had many more, including one in Dungarvan when we lost two young men, young O'Brien and young Esmonde, 12 years ago, and there was no investigation. The investigation board has no seagoing experience. We have the Swedish and British models so why do we carry on with this appalling vista of ineptitude, cover-up and lack of proper legislation? I had great expectations of the Minister but obviously he is not in charge. The mandarins are deciding. Jobs for the boys were never better than they are now. It is shocking. That is nothing personal. We had an opportunity with this legislation-----

Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent)
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You are making allegations. If you could----

Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent)
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I am making allegations that this legislation is toothless, fruitless and useless, and it does not-----

Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent)
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It is okay to make allegations against that but not against people.

Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent)
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Someone has to take responsibility. It is a smokescreen and a cover-up. I am elected to represent people, including the families of those two young men who lost their lives off Helvick Head. There was no proper investigation. Nobody in the Marine Casualty Investigation Board could go out to sea because they had no seagoing experience. It would only happen in Ireland and not in any other country in the world. In Ukraine or Russia it would not be as bad. We continue with this useless legislation that will not deal with the problems. We will not look at the Swedish model.

I salute Michael Kingston and others who have contributed to this. I am sorry I missed the Second Stage debate because I was indisposed. This is sad. People had hope and great expectations that there would finally be legislation but no. We talked last week about whistleblowers being supported. This is shocking to the core. It goes to the fabric of our democracy and illustrates that we have not a democracy, as such, because this legislation does not represent what the public deserve, which is a properly constructed board that is able, fit and suitably qualified to deal with situations involving loss of life. Loss of life is awful and we have had so much of it.

There was an excellent documentary on the Whiddy Island disaster on RTÉ. I criticise that body often. Those two young men lost their lives off Helvick Head and there was no justice or proper Garda investigation. It was a cover-up and a smokescreen. It is an appalling vista. We should all hang our heads in shame, especially the Department which continues the smokescreen and cover-up. It is shocking.

Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent)
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We are treading on thin ice when we make allegations of a cover-up.

Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent)
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That is what it is. I appreciate the Leas-Cheann Comhairle's concerns but it is nothing short of a cover-up and half-baked legislation to keep it going on.

Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent)
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I have no difficulty with the criticism of the legislation as a ruling, but not the comments.

Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
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I am sure the Minister is familiar with the efforts of those who contributed to the committee in pre-legislative scrutiny. I refer in particular to Michael Kingston, who is also a bereaved family member in relation to Whiddy Island.

The catalogue of repeated failures is disturbing. The Whiddy Island disaster in 1979 should have focused minds. The Herald of Free Enterprisedisaster was in 1987, when the independent marine accident investigation unit was set up. That template emerged there. In 1998, the report of the investigation of marine casualties policy review group recommended international best practice. It did not happen.

It is a serious matter that the Róisín Lacey report of 2010 was revealed through a whistleblower when it should have been published by the Minister's Department long ago. That recommended a multinodal accident investigation office to cover air, marine and rail, like the Swedish model. It was not acted upon. That has led to a complaint being sent to An Garda Síochána by Michael Kingston. This could not be more serious. The complaint alleges that these failures have led unnecessarily to lives being lost at sea.

In 2020, there was a humiliating judgment in Europe. There is huge expense again and again and failure by the Department to ensure a truly independent board. The Captain Clinch report still has not been published. Reports have repeatedly not been published or acted upon. It is failure after failure.

The Minister is asking us to take a leap of faith and trust the Department responsible for that widespread catalogue of failure. As my colleague, Deputy O'Rourke, said, our party cannot support this. I am our fisheries and marine spokesperson and I tell the Minister that we believe this is disrespectful and represents part of the catalogue of examples I could give that demonstrate the lack of respect.

There are only two island states in the European Union, namely, Ireland and Cyprus. We should have a proper process that protects families and provides training, support and protection to those at sea, whether involved in leisure or fisheries. Michael Kingston has been assisting the families of Gerry Doherty and Thomas Weir, who died tragically in Donegal. I have profound concerns about the findings in that regard. Michael Kingston and others say that, had there been the necessary training and support for people who go to sea, those lives did not have to be lost. I could give many other examples.

This was an opportunity for the Minister to do something comprehensive. In the pre-legislative scrutiny provided, there was an offer to draft legislation using templates from international best practice. As it happens, the Minister had draft legislation from the Róisín Lacey report all those years ago. That was just buried and not acted upon. A complaint has gone to An Garda Síochána, I think rightly. The Minister needs to oversee a review of how the hell that was not implemented at the time and why it did not appear among the other manifestations that come towards this legislation.

The Minister is asking people to take a leap of faith but people have lost faith in how the Department of Transport has handled this over the years. It could not be more serious. We will oppose this Bill. We see it as a missed opportunity by the Minister to get this right with many people offering in good faith to assist.

The Minister will have seen that from the transcript of the committee meeting and he will have seen the offers available there. Whatever way he deals with this tonight, it is necessary for him to move towards a model based on what is in place in Sweden. I refer to what was recommended all those years ago, in 2010, in the Róisín Lacey report. All these endeavours must come under the one roof and there must be total independence, which people can have faith in. When tragedies happen, and sadly they do happen, we must learn lessons from them and try to not repeat those mistakes again. Unfortunately, there is a catalogue and a chronology of failure here that the Minister must get his head around. Whatever way he deals with this tonight, he needs to go away and then come back with proper legislation containing a completely independent system that will give people faith that mistakes will not be repeated when tragedies happen.

Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats)
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I am also greatly disappointed with what we are being asked to vote on tonight. It is hard to believe that we are an island nation, because it would have been thought that this would have been one of the things we would have got right. It was not that long ago that we had a debate here on the loss of marine helicopter R116. That report was clear about its intention. It set out not to apportion blame, but to learn lessons and to save lives in future. Every investigation should be about that.

Much of this context predates the Minister's time. That is why there was a greater expectation that he would do things differently. This legislation started out with an EU directive in 2009, which we were meant to transpose by 2011. We were to have investigations that were independent. It is not a big ask for them to be genuinely independent. In 2015, the European Commission sought clarity. We had the audacity to challenge that in 2016, and to more or less say that we were not infringing in this regard. The European Commission argued that the make-up of the board did not constitute it being independent.

Many things missing from this legislation have been identified in those two reports. It is astonishing that reports which do chart the way have not been made available. What was the point of compiling those reports if we are not going to learn from the information contained in them? The Minister needs to tell us whether the report is going to be published at the end of the month. What would preclude it from being published? We should be looking at best international practice in the context of this legislation, but that is not what we are getting. We are getting a tick-box approach. We are just about in compliance, in theory, but we must be in compliance in practice, because that will make the difference in respect of learning lessons when accidents happen and in preventing them from happening in future.

We do regulation poorly. We do it in a fragmented and disjointed way. We think we save money by not having good regulatory organisations in place. In fact, we end up paying a price in the end. In this case, it may well be seafarers who end up paying the price. Often, though, we end up paying the price, in the context of compensation and things like that, because we have not done regulation well. I do not know when the penny will drop in this respect. It is not a situation unique to this aspect or this legislation. It is a general feature of how we do things. We must start learning lessons, take the bull by the horns and do this right. We should do this once and do it right. I would have thought that is what we would have been aiming to do here. It is disappointing that what we are doing instead is pushing into the future something that could be done now.

Michael Collins (Cork South West, Independent)
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I do not agree with this legislation. I ask the Minister to go back to the drawing board with this half-baked Bill in order to try to get it right. The Whiddy Island disaster happened 42 years ago. I suppose I am the only Deputy who was unfortunate enough to see what happened that night. I was 11 years old and standing on our doorstep 20 miles away, west of Schull, and looking at the ball of fire in the sky. It was a ball of fire in the sky that could not be described. There were no mobile phones and poor contact at times. Visitors were at our house with my father. A gentleman with them went as far north as was possible to see where the fire was coming from. No matter how far north they travelled, it still was ahead of them. That was 42 years ago, when a massive explosion occurred on the French oil tanker and took the lives of 51 people.

We recently heard a radio documentary called "Fire in the Sky", which caused many people to relive that night. It is well known now that no rescue took place because of the catastrophic safety failures and 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. There has been no resolution. Throughout this horrendous ordeal for the families over the last 42 years, the State has never apologised to them for the appalling failures in the administration of justice and in implementing regulation.

We are back to this topic again tonight. Some 42 or 43 years on, we are still going to make the same mistakes. The only thing the Minister might be able to do, seeing as he is not going to put the legislation right, is to talk to the Taoiseach and the Tánaiste and perhaps consider apologising to the families affected by the Whiddy Island tragedy. Perhaps the Minister might meet members of the French-Irish Association of Relatives and Friends of the Betelgeuse group to help them in their goal to have the High Court change the victims' death certificates to a finding of unlawful deaths. Michael Kingston has been mentioned several times tonight. It is no wonder. Not only has he fought a major battle regarding the Whiddy Island disaster to rectify the wrongs done there, but he has also fought bravely for other people in a voluntary capacity. That must be commended.

I will apologise to those families if the members of the Government fail in their duty to do so as the leaders of this country. I refer to the Minister, the Tánaiste and the Taoiseach. I will apologise to the families. Perhaps the biggest apology needed is in the context of sitting down with the families and myself and have a meaningful conversation. Perhaps we could all do the same thing and apologise to Mr. Kingston and the families. I had family who died that night in the Whiddy Island disaster. It is a tragic story that can be told, as are the stories of the other 50 people who died that night. It is sad to think that 42 years later these people can still find no justice, as I see it, in this legislation as it is. I plead with the Minister to take a step back, if for no other reason than out of respect for these people and to try to see if we can right the wrong here. I have no doubt that Michael Kingston, with his expert knowledge in this field, would certainly help the Government with this legislation, if it were to go through later. I refer to ensuring that proper investigations can take place and proper legislation is in place for that to happen.

I do not know if the Minister is going to withdraw the Bill. I do not think he will, but I certainly ask him to do so. Equally, I ask him to talk to the Tánaiste and to the Taoiseach - and I raised this issue here some months back as well - and issue an apology to these families. That is the least the State can do after this much time. Many of these people have been waiting for this apology. Agonisingly, they lost loved ones that night off Bantry Bay. It is a disaster that will never be forgotten in the memories of the people of west Cork

Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent)
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As nobody else is indicating, I call the Minister.

Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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It is important tonight that we remember all the families of those who died in the Whiddy Island disaster, which I remember, and in every disaster since when people have lost their lives at sea. It is such an acute loss that never fades or goes away. Our thoughts must be centred on those families. We must serve them by ensuring that we learn lessons from disasters and avoid the same terrible fate befalling other families.

I listened to what the Deputies said and to the extensive debate we had on Second Stage, on Committee Stage and at various meetings during the lengthy pre-legislative scrutiny by the Department. I have heard and listened with respect to other Deputies and their views.

I want to get across my one view as we conclude and, I hope, pass the Bill. While we all make mistakes in public life and in public service, my experience has been that officials and board members, the vast majority of people I deal with on a daily basis, in this area and in others, are people who are motivated by the very best of intentions and are independent rather than partisan in their approach. They put civility into public service. They are professional, competent and committed, and attempt to do their duty which is to care for the public good. That has been my experience. There may be cases in which we fail in that high standard but that is what I see in the Department and on the board for which I have responsibility. I have to stand up for them because I believe it is important that that perspective is also heard.

In conversations with my officials, they will know this is true, we are looking at all options. As we said at various stages right the way through this that our systems are not perfect - far from it. They are in need of reform, modernising and improvement. We acknowledge and agree with that and I am committed, during the lifetime of this Government, to deliver the sort of marine casualty investigation unit that we would all prefer to see, that is, a unit that is independent and physically located outside. We will look at perhaps locating it with our air and rail investigation units, so that they can pull together and get some of the benefits of such a co-ordinated approach.

However, I am conscious that to fully step in that direction, to completely provide the full suite of legislation that we want or need in order to get the most perfect system, brings with it one risk that we cannot accept. That is that in the time period between the start and finish of such an important legislative organisational process, we risk having a board that would not be able to carry out its functions. We would leave ourselves and our public exposed. That is what the Bill is about. It would quickly ensure that we have a functioning board under the existing system. We accept the European court judgment and recognise that it has required us to act very quickly and to give us the capability to have a larger board so that it is fully capable of doing the important public work. That is what the Bill attempts to do. It does not seek to address all the valid concerns that I listened to - I am perfectly up-front and honest about that - because I want to be quick. I want to get these people in place as soon as possible. That is why I call on everyone in the House to support the Bill, because failing to be quick risks leaving us exposed.

We will, subject to the legal advice from the Attorney General, publish the Clinch report. We will go to Government with proposals for a new and better organised structure, which we expect and have committed to have by the end of the year. I look forward to that debate and bringing it through the legislative process, but tonight we need to pass this Bill because we are at risk. That is the very essence of this whole area. It is about trying to minimise and reduce risk and learning lessons from the past.

Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent)
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The Bill will now be sent to the Seanad.