Seanad debates

Wednesday, 1 December 2010

4:00 pm

Photo of Paschal MooneyPaschal Mooney (Fianna Fail)

I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Connick.

In all of this, as has been touched on, is the sad fact that people lost their lives in the seafaring tragedy in the early 1980s. I note that has not been lost in all of the discussion and debate that has surrounded this controversial issue.

I also regret that I agree with the view that this has become now a political football. While I have the greatest of respect for the legal expertise and motivation of Senator Regan, since I returned to this House I note that it has been his consistent position to seek out what he believes to be low standards in high places, specifically if it is directed at this Fianna Fáil-Green administration. He is right and proper in calling political parties in Government to account. I have no quibble with that whatsoever. However, it seems on occasion - with respect, it is a little like the boy who cried wolf - that if one keeps shouting loud enough and often enough, either people will stop listening to you or, alternatively, if one fires enough mud, some of it might stick.

I restate that I have the greatest of sympathy for the family involved and the trauma that they have been going through over such a long period. In this issue, which it seemed on the face of it had been resolved and which, as Senator Ó Brolcháin stated, is still in the public domain, there is the continuing trauma that the family must be experiencing and the level of expectation that they must have each time this issue comes up that now, maybe this time, it will be resolved.

The scheme, when it was introduced, was not about money; it was about tonnage. Second, the charge has been repeatedly made against the former Minister, Deputy Fahey, by Senator Regan and others that he was somehow acting corruptly, incorrectly, and was in a favoured position to favour political supporters of his in Galway. These are serious charges. They are political charges and therefore quite legitimate, but they are serious nonetheless, and they have been rebutted repeatedly. Also, there is the question of where would the advantage have been. The scheme was not about money. Also, Department officials consistently rejected the view that the family were to be compensated.

Irrespective of who is in the job, the Ombudsman is a well-respected position and its integrity is rarely, if ever, questioned. It is the destination of last resort. For those who are desperate having, in their eyes, tried and had their application to the system rejected, this is the way forward and the Ombudsman is the last resort.

Despite the fact - Senator Ó Brolcháin referred to it, we read about it and the Ombudsman herself has said it - that there were only two instances over the past number of years where recommendations were turned down, the fact is there is nothing inherently wrong with the Ombudsman's recommendations being turned down but the impression given is that, because the Ombudsman stated that it was so, it must be so. In all of this, I and many others wish this issue had been resolved, and I thought it had been through the committee.

I leave the House with this thought. I wish Senator Regan well. He will be a member of a party that will form the next Government and I and others will await with great interest how he will address this long-running controversy when he is in a position in Government to see all the files. I am sure he has seen them already. I am sure that the system has been open and transparent because it has been debated so long and so often. It will be interesting to see ultimately what decision will be taken collectively by a Fine Gael-led Government on this issue. I finish as I started, wishing that there was some way that this family could be compensated for the loss with which they will continue to live long after this has gone out of the political debate.

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