I hank the Chairman and the committee for this opportunity to speak today. My family has been involved in fishing over many generations. My father in the Gallery recently received an award for 60 years of service to the Arklow lifeboat and my brother is currently carrying on that tradition also. On 2 July 2007, we purchased a German fishing vessel, Edward John. The vessel was Dutch designed, built and owned but registered under the German flag. The vessel was still fishing and had all up-to-date German paperwork with all copies of her two-year interval German surveys and sailing permits. The stability book was stamped and approved by the Germanischer Lloyd Classification Society and the German marine survey office. All this paperwork was accepted and approved by the Marine Survey Office, MSO, and she was accepted onto the Irish registry as Mary Kate, WD-30.
From the beginning we did not have a safe feeling in the vessel, something we never experienced in our former older beam trawler. We nearly capsized on a couple of occasions. We notified the Marine Survey Office and agreed that the vessel should be stability-tested as soon as possible. On 26 May 2009, we carried out our first stability test, which was done by our naval architect and witnessed by the Marine Survey Office. The results were devastating but not surprising. On 2 October 2009, we had a meeting with our solicitor and our insurance company. It was confirmed that we were not insured for a design mistake or a latent defect, which the vessel was proven to have had.
Many stability tests and surveys were carried out by many experts in their field and they all arrived at the same conclusion, that the vessel was highly dangerous from day one, could never have met its EU stability criteria and should never have been certified by Germanischer Lloyd and the German Marine Survey Office.
The vessel cost us a considerable amount to purchase and license. We were left with two options: to scrap the vessel or to have her lengthened by 5.85 metres, a massive increase of over 20% of her original length. We took the second option as it was the only sensible option left to us. After she was lengthened and fixed, several buyers from the UK were extremely interested in buying her as she was now a fabulous boat in fantastic condition and all her paperwork was up-to-date, but the Maritime and Coast Guard Agency, MCA, the UK equivalent of the MSO, would under no circumstances allow any of the interested parties to import the vessel to the UK. We had to voluntarily surrender the vessel and licence to the bank which resulted in a forced fire sale. Even after the sale, we still owe the bank a massive amount. Since then, it has also looked as though two family homes would be repossessed.
We have been told that we are time barred in the Netherlands and Germany, which has stopped us taking a case against Germanischer Lloyd and the German Marine Survey Office. In January 2011, we travelled to Brussels to give a presentation to the Directorate General for Maritime Affairs and Fisheries. All in attendance were visibly shocked at the content of our presentation, which was backed up with impartial professional evidence that the Mary Kate contained 20 tons of unaccounted steel from new build. We also gave evidence about a second German sister vessel with the same stability failures. The directorate undertook to inform the EU countries where the sister vessels to the Mary Kate were registered. The European maritime directorate said it cannot compensate an individual as it can only deal with countries, but that Ireland could compensate us out of the European Fisheries Fund and if Ireland's allocation had already been used, Ireland could submit our case and because of its unique circumstances, it would be approved. We pursued this possibility at every level, with letters of support from MEPs and TDs, but again our request was shot down by the Departments of Transport and Agriculture, Food and the Marine.
In 2014 we commenced legal proceedings in the High Court against the German Marine Survey Office and Germanischer Lloyd to get jurisdiction for the case to be held in Ireland. It took until 12 November 2015 for a ruling to be made that Ireland did not have jurisdiction and in the judge's opinion, we should take a case in either the Netherlands or Germany. This is a quote from a letter the EU wrote to Seán Kelly MEP:
In terms of addressing the loss Mr Gaffney has suffered, on a previous occasion the possibility was outlined that the case might be addressed through the European Fisheries Fund, but this was a decision for the Irish Authorities as they oversee the allocation of such funding. The Commission could not instruct them in this regard.
The Commission also said this to us at our Brussels meeting in 2011, and if Ireland had acted upon it, we would not have been put through this living hell. Ireland has never made such a submission. Seán Kelly MEP and nine other MEPs wrote a joint letter to the Taoiseach and the Minister for the marine stating:
The Commission has made it clear on several occasions that Mr Gaffney’s case can be exceptionally addressed through the European Fund for Maritime and Fisheries. At this stage the matter has been unresolved for 15 years and it does not reflect well on the Government that this case remains when a clear remedy is available.
A previous Minister for the marine told us that if they helped us, they would have to help everyone and it would open the floodgates. Ours is the only ever Irish case like this. It is unique - a one-off - and should be treated as such. The Department with responsibility for fisheries and the current Minister referred to our case as a failed private commercial transaction. I have never missed any payments on this or any of my previous vessels. A failed private commercial transaction is buying a restaurant and getting no bookings. It is nothing remotely like what has happened to us.
As members will see, this case has many similarities to the mica saga and has caused as much devastation and hurt, also through no fault of our own. From the very first day, we have been treated abysmally by the Department of the marine and the Department of Transport. Every proposal we have put forward has been turned down and not once has any help or support in any shape or form been forthcoming. We have lost our livelihood, career and way of life, all our savings, our substantial family investment and our family´s heritage. Our mental health has suffered and continues to suffer and personal relationships have been severed beyond repair. I would not wish the never-ending stress and worry on anyone. It is a real struggle to carry on and impossible to turn off, with this nightmare constantly on our minds.
I was a successful fisherman, providing for my family and creating local employment, with a real sense of pride and achievement. I climbed the ladder from being an apprentice deckhand at 15 years old to owning and skippering a state-of-the-art vessel by the age of 37, which took huge sacrifices and hard work to achieve. The Mary Kate was the last trawler in Arklow and was a huge source of pride for the whole town. In the blink of an eye, this all changed and I was left with nothing. I was thrust into an alien world I knew nothing about. With no income and with the social welfare office stating I was not entitled to anything as the director of a company, I had to live off savings and rely on family handouts. I was instructed by our bank to visit the vessel daily to keep its machinery running and in good working order and to keep a log. This went on for years. I also had to deal with the bank, surveyors, naval architects, councillors, TDs, MEPs, Ministers, Brussels, insurance companies and journalists, do radio interviews and deal with lawyers in Germany, the Netherlands and Ireland, including senior counsel and other barristers, the MSO, shipyards and Departments, sometimes all in the same week. It was overwhelming and I do not know how, as a family, we managed to cope. I would like committee members to really think for a minute about the stress, turmoil and mental fatigue we suffered, while being told we had zero rights, and all this through no fault of our own.
There are no current EU directives to cover this size of vessel, either customer protection or vessel safety. Article 47 of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights deals with the right to an effective remedy and a fair trial as follows:
Everyone whose rights and freedoms guaranteed by the law of the Union are violated has the right to an effective remedy before a tribunal in compliance with the conditions laid down in this Article.
Everyone is entitled to a fair and public hearing within a reasonable time by an independent and impartial tribunal previously established by law. Everyone shall have the possibility of being advised, defended and represented.
Legal aid shall be made available to those who lack sufficient resources in so far as such aid is necessary to ensure effective access to justice.
We were denied these rights because we were time-barred in both the Netherlands and Germany and the Irish High Court ruled Ireland had no jurisdiction and awarded substantial costs against me. As members will see, we have no rights anywhere or support, even as Irish and EU citizens. This is unbelievable in 2024. Without a shadow of a doubt, this is a miscarriage of justice and it should have been pursued vigorously by the Department of Foreign Affairs, the Department of the marine and the Department of Transport until a satisfactory solution was found.
We hope the committee will rule in favour of recognition and compensation, as the EU did - it would be at no cost to the Irish taxpayer - so that we can at last get on with our lives. We also ask that an investigation be carried out, including of the existing sister ships, the findings of which should be shared with the EU, the Netherlands and Germany so lessons can be learned to stop this from ever happening again. Health and safety should always be paramount when fishermen’s lives or those of anyone else are at risk. We have been to many committees and have met many people and have always come up against a brick wall. We are praying that today will finally be the opening for the beginning of the end. I thank the committee for the opportunity.
