Richard Bruton
Question:18 Mr. R. Bruton asked the Minister for the Marine if a report has been received in relation to the sinking of the mv Kilkenny ship in Dublin Bay; if it will be published; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Dublin Bay Collision Report.
Eric J. Byrne
Question:37 Mr. Byrne asked the Minister for the Marine whether the inquiry into the collision involving the mv Kilkenny and the mv Hasselwerder has yet been completed; if so, if he will outline the conclusions of the inquiry and the recommendations which have been made; and if he will publish the report of the inquiry.
I propose to take Questions Nos. 18 and 37 together.
I would like to refer Deputies to my statement on this subject in the House on the occasion of the Committee Stage of the Merchant Shipping Bill, 1991.
In the statement I said that the preliminary findings indicated that the matter required further investigation by the Garda Síochána and that the papers had been referred to the Garda Commissioner. A senior Garda officer was appointed to investigate the matter and the investigation is now under way. When this investigation is completed the Garda Authorities will decide whether or not a file should be sent to the Director of Public Prosecutions. It would be inappropriate for me to comment further at this stage. I have also been advised that in view of the Garda investigation it would be inappropriate at this stage to publish a report based on the inquiry under the Merchant Shipping Act, 1948.
On Report Stage of the Merchant Shipping Bill, 1991, I announced to the House that on an experimental basis my Department would, unless legally debarred from so doing, release a report of marine accident investigations undertaken by the Department of the Marine. I took this decision in the interest of maritime safety and to allay public concern about marine accidents.
My new policy will have implications for the conduct of inquiries by the marine surveyors of my Department and work has already begun to devise a new modus operandi for future investigations. This new policy will apply to the mv Kilkenny-mv Hasselswerder collision in November last and to all subsequent marine accident investigations conducted by my Department.
Deputies should be aware that there will often be a time lag between the date of an accident and the date of publication of the related report. Delays may occur in cases where the pursuit of legal proceedings arising from a casualty effectively prevents release of a departmental report until after the completion of the legal process.
I am taken aback by the Minister's reply. The Minister received quite a lot of credit and support from all sides of the House when he announced that he would publish the reports of accidents. However, he has now received the report but has said he will not publish it because the Garda are examining it. Will the Minister say why the public are not entitled to this information? The Director of Public Prosecutions and the Garda can draw their own separate conclusions but this is an issue of public importance and accountability because I have been advised that certain parties were culpable in relation to this accident in Dublin Bay: two boats were in the same lane, which should not have happened. Safety procedures are in place and it is vital to publish the report. Will the Minister confirm that, although he has the report, he refuses to publish it? If so, his new policy is a sham.
I have not yet seen the report. The Deputy could only have been taken aback if he was not in the House when we discussed this matter.
I was here.
I made it very clear that certain questions were being referred to the Garda authorities and that is the way the matter stands. The purpose of the report is to find out what happened in relation to regulations and other matters concerning the incident. It is not the function of the Department of the Marine — nor would they have the authority — to attribute culpability to anybody. I have given an undertaking that a report will be produced on any future incidents. I have explained to the House what I did in relation to this incident and why I did it.
It is about a month since the Minister indicated that this matter had been referred to the Garda. Have the Minister or his officials had contact with the Garda with a view to establishing how long the investigation will take? Will he indicate whether any matters arose from the inquiry which do not involve a reference to the Garda and which can now be made available to the public? Will the Minister give an assurance that, when the Garda investigation is completed, the full report of the inquiry will be made available to the public?
Obviously, it would not be appropriate for us to put pressure on the Garda in this situation. We would be in communication as to when the Garda will have completed their investigations but I do not know how much longer this will take. The Deputy may have seen a statement in the newspapers recently to the effect that the investigations had been concluded but that was later denied by the Garda press office. All I can say is that investigations are well under way at this stage and I hope they will come to a conclusion reasonably quickly. However, in cases like this we just have to wait.
The Minister will agree that this relates to a report of his Department, not a Garda report. If he says that the report will not apportion blame how could it then infringe or prejudice Garda action in any way? The Minister said that he has not seen the report. Will he make it his business to do so to enable him to conclude whether it should be published or whether there is a smokescreen or unnecessary delays in regard to its publication? I am far from happy with the Minister's response.
When the report has been fully completed, obviously it will then come to me. However, one of the difficulties is that we changed our policy following an incident. I said in the reply that my Department are looking at a new modus operandi in relation to reports because questions of confidentiality arise in relation to statements made. People should know in advance that their statements will be published. That causes complications in regard to this report; the new modus operandi will be that, following future incidents, people will be told that this is the way the report will be conducted. They will know exactly where they stand and matters will be clarified at the outset. It is not clear in this instance because, as I said, we changed the policy following an incident.
When the Minister announced that he would publish reports it was welcomed by all sides of the House, indeed many Members wanted the policy to be retrospective. However, I detected from the Minister's reply that there may be legal constraints on him in regard to this report and I should like him to clarify the position.
In so far as it was decided to refer the matter to the Garda Commissioner, there is a legal aspect to it but it would not be appropriate to go any further into the matter now. We look forward to the early conclusion of the investigation.
I seek a reply to the second part of my earlier question. If the Garda inquiry is protracted — or when it is completed — will the Minister give an assurance that the full report will then be published?
Of course my Department will publish a report on the incident. How full it will be and the implications of the Garda investigation remain to be seen.
I should like to get a clear commitment from the Minister. If The Director of Public Prosecutions decides to press charges are there any circumstances whereby the Minister will not publish the report? In other words, is the Minister giving a cast-iron guarantee that, in all circumstances, the full report will be published sometime?
I have said that a report will be published and that will have to take the legal aspects into consideration.
It will be a whitewash, a sanitised report.
It will be no such thing. This is a very serious matter and the Deputy should not be playing politics. As I said, following an incident, we changed the policy and said what we will do in future. Everybody is notified from hereon that this will be the approach. I have given the caveat that there may be legal considerations which will have to be dealt with, and I think everybody accepts that. Given that situation we will give as full a report as is feasible.