Victor Boyhan (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I want to conclude my commentary on this amendment. I thank Senator David Norris for co-signing it. We had a good debate and a good exchange. I am not on the committee, although I did have engagements with some of the members of the committee as a result of looking at the Dáil transcript and reading the transcript of the committee. All of the contacts that I received were external. They were from people involved in the maritime area of concern, either in business in the maritime area or representing maritime communities. I particularly think of some harrowing stories in Donegal, from where people came to my office to discuss their concerns. All of the people were very knowledgeable and very fluent in regard to the Clinch and Lacey reports. They were also very up-to-speed in regard to the outcome of the European case. They spoke extremely highly of Michael Kingston, which it is important to acknowledge. He was a brave man. He took risks. He took a case. It is not easy to put yourself out there.

These are professional reports and professional people with a huge stake and huge expertise in this area and they brought concerns. We do not need any legislation to make the ask that we would have these two reports published, which is in line with the commitment of the Minister, by the way, subject to the Attorney General, and I accept that may still be an outstanding issue. I would like to think the Minister of State will bring back that request from the House. I think there is general agreement across the House that, at some appropriate time, when it is practical, possible and reasonable to all parties to do so, we could have those two reports published.

As Senator Dooley put it, this is far from concluded. Indeed, the Minister of State's constituency is one of the constituencies from where I had people up to meet me. I mentioned Deputy Cathal Crowe, who spoke at great length in regard to all of this in the House and at the committee at some point. There is a huge commitment across the parties by all involved. The Minister of State said there is this need for a new mechanism to appoint members to a board of the MCIB, so she acknowledged that herself, to be fair to her. That is important.

What is the ask? We need a robust and properly resourced marine casualty body which has capacity, funds, resources and organisation structures in place that are of a very high level, like any other international practice. That is very important. Again, we need a full-time and professional unit to investigate marine casualties. We need openness and transparency in this area. We need to ensure that the public has confidence in the body that is doing this, and I think that is where we are going. It is a question of us all agreeing what needs to be done but there is an urgency about it. It cannot go on and on, so that is what I would ask.

I thank the Minister of State for coming to the House and thank Members for their time in engaging with this amendment. We will take it from there. I understand from a draft of next week's schedule for the Seanad that this item may appear again next Thursday, but that is to be confirmed and is only in draft form. As I said, there will be a new deadline and it is my intention to bring at least that one amendment at the next meeting of the Seanad.