I would like to thank the Minister for coming to the House to participate in this motion on the Adjournment concerning the very serious incident which occurred on a Brittany Ferries vessel, the mv Havelet en route from Cork to Roscoff.
As I understand it that vessel was ten hours late leaving Cork. According to reports there were some disputes between lorry drivers and the crew of the mv Havelet about the loading of the vessel. The ship departed at 1.45 a.m. on Sunday morning. These times were given to me by Cork Harbour Board. It returned at 8.20 a.m. on the same morning. The time of the incident is put by most people at 4.20 a.m. I do not think there is any disagreement about that.
The location of the incident, according to one experienced seaman on board, was 15º, 24 minutes north, 7º, 4 minutes west, and roughly ten miles due east of the Kinsale gas platform. There were 175 passengers and 55 crew members, or a total of 240 people on board. On these facts there is no dispute but from that point on we will have difficulty arriving at the actual facts.
I have discussed the matter with people who were on board, including some of my colleagues at the university and I have been assured that there was no safety feature announcement either before or after departure by the crew of the boat and no announcement as to where the assembly stations were located. Inexperienced travellers, like myself, would not know the purpose of two rings on the bell. Quite frankly, I gather there was considerable confusion when the incident occurred.
Everybody I have spoken to is also satisfied that there was a list on that ship before it departed and during departure from Cork harbour. In fact, one passenger whom I spoke to today — a Mr. Brian Doran who was one of the students in that group — pointed out that his colleague in the cabin was complaining of sliding from the bed, such was the list of the boat. All the people I have spoken to agree there were two waves, not one. All are agreed petrol was spilled from at least three cars whose petrol tanks were ruptured as a result of a lorry having broken its restraining chains. All are agreed that for hours after the ship docked on its return, Cork fire brigade continued to wash out the vessel to get rid of the petrol and petrol fumes.
The people I know best who were on board that ship were the members of the staff of the college, Professor Flanagan, Professor of Geography, Dr. Tyrrell who is a climatologist and some of the students. Professor Flanagan is an experienced boat person, Dr. Tyrrell is a climatologist, as I said, and Mr. Doran — whom I spoke to no later than an hour and a half ago — is quite an experienced seaman also. These people are of some standing. They are professionals in their own areas and some of them have considerable experience of going to sea.
The really frightening thing about this incident was that petrol spilled profusely on the deck where the trucks and cars were, so much so that the air extraction system was shut down because of the danger of fire. What the crew could not prevent was the grinding of metal against metal as the trucks and cars collided underneath with the danger of sparks. In that situation I do not think it is an exaggeration to say that there was a danger of fire or a virtual explosion.
It begs the question, were the crew negligent in not evacuating the ship? Did the crew call — I think they did — for boats from the gas platform? While I am on the subject of the gas platform, I think it will be easy for the Minister to check whether a freak wave occurred at that time. I understand that oil and gas platforms keep a very exact record of weather and sea movements, etc. That at least ought to be easy to verify.
Upon returning to port and, as you can well understand, there were hundreds of people in extreme shock, one would have expected a reputable company like Brittany Ferries — and they have been a responsible and reputable firm operating into and out of Cork in the past — to have treated the passengers with a little more consideration. Professor Flanagan and some of his students were left in the terminal for three hours. Some of these students were sick, all of them were shocked, and one would have expected that the very least the company might have done would be to offer medical assistance. Other people lost their cars and the immediate announcement that there would be no compensation because this was an act of God, even before anybody other than the captain talked of it being an act of God, was simply callous.
I heard one young couple being interviewed. They had just been married and were setting off on their honeymoon. Their car was a total write-off. Did the Minister see the conditions of those cars? He probably did see them on television; they were squashed like an aluminium coke can that somebody would stand on. It was an extremely serious incident. We are talking about the lives of 240 people being at risk and in imminent danger. If you listen to the news and there is an emergency landing by an aircraft it gets massive coverage and an immediate inquiry is put in train. Here most people were inclined to play it down and talk of an inquiry seemed premature as far as some people were concerned.
I read the record of the debate in the Dáil in which the Minister for the Marine was asked about what happened and, frankly, I am not satisfied with what is emerging. In the first instance, there was a conflict of evidence between the captain and everybody else who was on the boat about whether there was a freak wave or if there were one or two waves. Then the marine surveyor who went on the vessel in Cork to examine it, said he examined it and left it about 12 o'clock on Sunday night; he said he was going back the next morning and implied that the boat was told to stay there. The Minister said he had no power to retain the boat so long as it was declared seaworthy. If it was seaworthy why did the surveyor want to go back again the next morning? Clearly there is some conflict of information here. Either the ship was seaworthy or it was not; either he has his survey completed or he has not. Clearly if he was returning the next morning he was not entirely happy with all he had surveyed, or he had surveyed it completely. Be that as it may, the boat slipped away quietly the following morning and it is now in Roscoff. The Minister is sending one of his inspectors to continue the survey, obviously in conjunction with his French conterparts.
I believe this incident is so serious that nothing short of a sworn public inquiry will satisfy people. That inquiry should cover everything that occurred at sea and on land after the boat returned. I know people are arguing that this ship was unfit for that particular journey, and I am not in a position to comment on that, but I do know that this vessel originally had no stabilisers and had stabilisers fitted in more recent years. I know it is a much smaller vessel than the one that Brittany Ferries normally operate on this route. I know it is the kind of vessel used regularly across the English Channel, but the English Channel is quite another matter from the open Atlantic Ocean.
On the other hand, Professor Flanagan and Dr. Tyrrell are satisfied — I will remind you again that Dr. Tyrrell is a claimatologist — that the weather was nothing more than what you would normally expect at this time of year, and they did not see any danger in crossing in that kind of weather, and that the waves were nothing more than you would normally expect in March.
All in all, it is such a serious incident that it deserves a sworn public inquiry and I hope the Minister for the Marine will agree to that. My own concern was raised initially, when I heard so many of our students were on it and that is why I made such in-depth inquiries into it. These students were not going for a holiday; they were going to carry out part of their obligatory fieldwork. They have no idea whether they are going to be compensated or not. They still have to do their obligatory work and many of them are in such shock that I do not know how they are going to get back to do that work. So far they have got no satisfaction from the company. I believe that is despicable, to say the least, although the record of that company has been that of a responsible company giving a good service from Roscoff to Cork.
There is another issue here, that is, the confidence of travellers. Being an island nation our economy depends on a good, safe and efficient transport system. Our tourist industry — particularly in the south of Kerry and west Cork — depends extremely heavily on ferries. Unless we get the matter cleared up and public confidence is restored in the operation of such ferries, I fear it will affect the tourist industry at least for some time. I would plead with the Minister to set up a sworn public inquiry as I can see nothing else that will bring out the full truth and restore confidence among the travelling public in these ferries which are so essential today.
