Seán Canney (Galway East, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Senators for their contributions, all of which I listened to intently. I will try to answer some of the questions raised. In regard to pre-legislative scrutiny, this was carried out by the Joint Committee on Transport and Communications. Its report was published on 2 May 2023. Where appropriate, the recommendations of the committee were incorporated in the Bill - for example, a broad definition of "ship" was used in the Bill along with the MAIU to investigate marine accidents involving a wide range of vessels. The Bill also includes detailed provisions requiring the independence of investigators and processes for dealing with conflicts of interest, including an obligation on the Minister to publish a conflicts of interest policy in relation to the MAIU.

Some Senators, including Senator Kyne, mentioned the issue of attributing blame.

MAIU investigations do not attribute blame or fault. This is required under the EU directive. These are not prosecutorial investigations. Parallel investigations involving the Garda and whomever will be taking place. That is where that comes in. There is no problem with a coroner taking a report and using it as part of his investigations.

Some people mentioned the Lacey report. In 2009, the Government published the Lacey report. That report proposed a rationalisation involving a reduction in the overall number of 41 bodies and the streamlining of other functions. This decision included the amalgamation of the Air Accident Investigation Unit, the Railway Accident Investigation Unit, the Rail Safety Commission and the Marine Casualty Investigation Board. The Lacey report was initiated to examine the possible establishment of a national accident investigation office and a multimodal investigation body for rail, air and marine. The report was not acted upon due to a change of government at the time. This Bill does not preclude us from reactivating the proposal to bring in a single agency to look after this area if that is what we want to do.

The recommendations and observations of the Clinch report were published in December 2022. As they are the key output of the review, all recommendations directed towards the Department of Transport have been actioned. To provide one example, the report recommended that the Minister for Transport should establish a functionally independent MAIU within the Department of Transport. The reporting structure and staffing models should be in line with what was already in place for the AAIU and the RAIU. This is the primary purpose of the Merchant Shipping (Investigation of Marine Accidents) Bill.

The recommendations in the report were published. I will not comment on what the relevant Senator said about people being appointed because I do not know what is involved. The MAIU will be led by a chief investigator and staffed by a team of investigators who will be recruited through an open competition run by the Public Appointments Service, PAS, which is the centralised provider in the context of recruitment, assessment and selection services across the Civil Service and the public service. PAS provides for open and transparent recruitment processes to identify candidates for public sector roles and has a strong reputation for independent and merit-based selection.

Senator Collins indicated that she wants three investigators. Investigation of an accident might required more than that. If we enshrine in law three investigators to work with the chief investigator, the latter's hands would be tied. We need to have more flexibility. It would be wrong to specify three investigators in legislation.

The Bill was also carefully drafted in order to meet the independent requirements of the EU directive. When the Bill was being drafted, the Department liaised with the European Commission. The legislation provides that the chief investigator of the MAIU shall not receive instruction - this was referred to by a few Senators - from any official within the Department with a role in the maritime policy operational area. The legislation requires the Minister to put in place a robust conflict-of-interest policy within six months of the establishment of the unit. The maritime division within the Department of Transport will have no involvement in the work of the MAIU and the chief investigator will be responsible for directing the work of the unit. Each investigation will have a designated investigator in charge who will be responsible for running that specific investigation.

As already stated, nothing in the Bill precludes a coroner from referring to a report of the MAIU during an inquest. Questions of liability, whether criminal or civil, are not part of the coronial process.

Senator Kyne spoke about the sharing of evidence between agencies and other bodies. As stated, it is a strict requirement of the EU directive that investigations of the MAIU must be independent of any other parallel investigation. That is why it cannot be evidence based. If evidence is to be used in litigation, some witnesses or prospective witnesses may not want to say what happened if there is a threat of litigation coming down the track.

I hope I have answered all, or the majority, of the issues raised.

I again thank Senators for their time and for coming in here this evening. To reiterate, this Bill is about enhancing our maritime safety regime, particularly in terms of marine accident investigation. The Bill will establish a new maritime accident investigation unit and provide it with the necessary powers to investigate marine accidents with the purpose of establishing the cause of an accident in order to make recommendations to improve safety going forward.

This Bill is also about future-proofing for the increased demands and complexities arising from the development of offshore wind energy in particular, which Senator Blaney mentioned. Ireland is committed to achieving carbon neutrality by 2050. To reach that target, the country must significantly increase the proportion of its energy needs that are fulfilled by renewable sources, including offshore renewable energy. Coming from the west of Ireland, as Senators Kyne and Blaney and others do, we know the potential there. If we are going to harness that potential, we need to make sure we do it in a way that is safe and where there are rules and regulations in terms of safety like there would be on a construction site or wherever else. It is important that we do that. This Bill will help us to achieve that by providing for the necessary regulation-making power to cater for the newer types of vessels being used in the offshore service sector and the carriage of industrial personnel on these vessels. That is very important as well.

Updates to the International Maritime Organization's, IMO's, safety of life at sea convention and the International Labour Organization’s, ILO's, Maritime Labour Convention will enable more recent amendments to these conventions to be addressed in national secondary legislation.

I thank everyone for their attendance and their positive and constructive engagement. I look forward to progressing this Bill further.