Marine accidents are to be investigated by a new independent authority which will seek to avoid delays, recrimination and blame.
Evidence given to the marine casualty investigation board (MCIB) will be confidential and witnesses will not be incriminated in possible criminal prosecutions, the Minister for the Marine and Natural Resources, Dr Woods, has said.
Accepting the recommendations of the Government's marine casualties policy review group yesterday in Dublin, the Minister also promised to publish several outstanding investigations shortly. Eleven reports are still with, or have only just been cleared by, the Attorney General's office. They include the loss of the Donegal trawler Carrickatine, with six crew on board in 1995, and the sinking of the Jenalisa off the south-east coast in 1996.
The review group was initiated by Dr Woods's predecessor, Mr Sean Barrett, 18 months ago under the chairmanship of Mr Vincent Power, solicitor, maritime lawyer and partner at A.& L. Goodbody's.
The 10-member group was commissioned to examine existing policy and procedures, and to look at casualty investigation systems in other countries.
It met members of several bereaved families, including relatives of the Carrickatine crew.
The group took evidence at home and abroad, including statutory institutions in Australia, New Zealand, Europe and the US. It recommends enactment of a new legislative and procedural regime, based on the principle of identifying the cause of accidents rather than apportioning blame.
It recommends that reports of investigations be published within a specific time and that public tribunals be used only in the "most exceptional" circumstances, where there is obstruction by witnesses or the cause of the casualty is technically very complex.
Reports produced by an independent marine casualty investigation board should be given statutory protection, and the factual conclusions should not be reopened by a court or disciplinary tribunal other than in the most exceptional circumstances, such as where fraud or bias is alleged on the part of the MCIB or the investigators acting on its behalf, the group says.
It also recommends the publication of annual summaries of investigations.
The new legislation, which would involve repealing relevant parts of the existing 1894 Merchant Shipping Act, should provide for taking blood/urine samples from participants in any casualty to determine whether the presence of alcohol or drugs might have contributed to the casualty, the group says.
It also recommends shortening the seven-year period for declaration of death where a body has been lost at sea.
Coroners should confine the inquest to those functions set out in the Coroners' Act and should not seek to re-examine the technical aspects of the casualty, which is more appropriately the remit of technical marine investigators, it observes.
It also says that Ireland should continue to investigate marine casualties involving Irish-registered vessels, wherever in the world such accidents occur.
The group notes that existing legislation is now over a century old and is in clear need of modernisation.
At yesterday's publication the Minister, Dr Woods, said he accepted all the recommendations and would move on the necessary legislative changes very shortly. An independent board would not be costly to set up, he said, as staff would be drawn from the existing marine survey office.
Given that the Irish Marine Emergency Service (IMES) could be extending its remit to inland waterways, there was no reason this new board would not also deal with accidents occurring inland, he said.
It was during Dr Woods's first term of office as marine minister in 1992 that the policy of not publishing details of marine fatalities was changed in line with a new approach in Britain.
The first report published, subject to editing on legal advice, was on the deaths of the two Tomlins children on the ferry Celtic Pride. Several further reports were published, but legal aspects proved so difficult that the review group was set up by his predecessor to identify and recommend improvements.
The Minister thanked in particular those members of fishing and coastal communities whose lives had been directly affected by casualties and who had taken the time to share their tragic experiences with the review group.
The group's findings were particularly appropriate at a time of much change in the area of sea safety, including the transformation of IMES into a national coastguard, the strengthening of the position of the Naval Service, a whitefish fleet renewal scheme which had exceeded all expectations in terms of interest, and grants for safety equipment on fishing vessels, the Minister added.
