Niall Ó Donnghaile (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Cuirim fáilte roimh an Aire Stáit don phlé. As she knows, this is a technical Bill arising from a judgment by the Court of Justice of the European Union. The Bill is and should only be a first step in addressing the serious issues in marine casualty investigations. Passing this legislation was an opportunity to address some substantive issues in marine casualty investigation. That has been outlined eloquently by Senator Boyhan. Sadly, however, the opportunity has been missed.

I had intended to speak to amendment No. 1, which I accept has been ruled out of order. Amendment No. 2, in seeking a report, outlines the rationale for a report. I would like to speak about that. Senator Boyhan mentioned the Lacey report, which was published in 2010. It is a serious matter that the Lacey report of 2010 was revealed through a whistleblower when it should have been published by the Minister's Department long ago. That report made specific recommendations on how to deal with the totality of the deficiencies in marine casualty investigations. It recommended a multinodal accident investigation office to cover air, marine and rail incidents, similar to the Swedish model. It was not acted upon. That has led to a complaint being sent to An Garda Síochána by Mr. Michael Kingston. This could not be more serious. The complaint alleges that these failures have led unnecessarily to lives being lost at sea. In effect, we should not be here now. Had we acted on the Lacey report and other advice over ten years ago, we would not be here with this Bill now.

There is a long and sorry history of missed opportunities, including in respect of the Whiddy Island disaster in 1979, the MS Herald of Free Enterprisedisaster in 1987, the 1998 report, the 2010 Lacey report and the 2020 Clinch report. Instead of doing what needed to be done, the State defended the indefensible at a European court and, as expected, failed.

We have concerns about the fact that the Bill does not go further in addressing the issues in marine casualty investigations. It is disappointing that the Minister has not tabled amendments similar to those tabled by Senators Boyhan and Norris, particularly now that they have been deemed to be out of order.

Where is the urgency to address the wide range of issues regarding marine casualty investigations? We firmly believe that we now have the opportunity to get the area of marine casualty investigations right. The Minister of State is asking us to take a leap of faith and trust the very Department responsible for that catalogue of widespread failure. That is a leap we cannot take, I am afraid. Unless the Minister of State is able to come back with substantive amendments on Report Stage, we will oppose this Bill. We see it as a missed opportunity by the Minister to get this issue right with many people offering in good faith to assist.