While attention is properly being given to disasters such as the Erika and the Prestige, I remind the House that in Ireland we succeeded earlier this year in averting a serious oil spill. That incident, and the manner in which it was handled, was used at European level by our colleagues as an example of how a response to such an incident should be handled, rather than how they have been dealt with, in the case of the Prestige in particular. An incident occurred on 28 January 2002 off the Donegal coast involving a 22 year old single-hulled Panamanian-registered tanker, the Princess Eva, which had a potential for pollution similar to that caused by the Prestige and the Erika. The vessel was carrying 55,000 tonnes of heavy oil from Copenhagen to the USA. It experienced very heavy weather off the north-west coast of Ireland. Following an accident on board in which two crew members were unfortunately killed and another seriously injured, the vessel entered Donegal Bay, where the two bodies were transferred to shore. An oil spill was averted owing to actions taken by the Irish Coastguard and the maritime safety directorate of my Department. Such events serve to remind us of our coastline's vulnerability. Ireland has accordingly consistently supported measures at both EU and IMO level to bring about improvements in ships' standards, better protection of the marine environment and adequate compensation of victims. I propose to continue that approach.