Vol. 497 No. 2
81 Mr. Allen asked the Minister for the Marine and Natural Resources if he will publish in full the Kirwan report on the Ballycotton tragedy which occurred in July 1990; and if he will make the report available to the families of the deceased officers. [24575/98]
A full formal investigation into this tragic accident was carried out by a district justice with two nautical assessors under section 466 of the Merchant Shipping Act, 1994. The report of this formal investigation was published on 17 July 1991. The report prepared by Captain Kirwan under section 728 of the Act was available to the formal investigation team.
The High Court, in a judgment dated 25 January 1991, regarding an application by the widow of one of the deceased officers for among other issues the production of all reports, ruled that the plaintiff had not established that she has a right to the production of Captain Kirwan's report.
It should be borne in mind that the Kirwan report, along with numerous other reports, were prepared on the basis that they would not be published. It would not in my view be appropriate to re-open such reports at this time.
I should mention that I decided when Minister for the Marine in 1992 that all future reports on marine accident inquiries should be published and that is now established policy.
I will shortly be presenting to the Government proposals to address the recommendations in the report of the policy review group on marine casualty investigation. The key proposal is the establishment of a new statutory marine casualty investigation board with enhanced powers to investigate marine casualties and to publish expeditiously reports of the board's findings.
