Senator Gerard Craughwell-- speech from 23 Nov 2022

Goera maith agat, Lasko Heerlich, and I too want to stand with Amy and my colleagues here, a very, very brave woman, and yes, I hope we can see something good come out of this. Yesterday, Acting Leader, I spoke about the death of Catherine Lucas down in Clare, and the appalling fact that that woman's family is waiting six years for an inquest, which is totally unacceptable. But evidence has come to me now that suggests that the life jackets in use in the Coast Guard at that time were faulty. There's documentary evidence that the faults in the life jackets have been reported from 2015, where they failed miserably to turn a person on their back, and furthermore, there is a suggestion that the life jacket that the life jacket that Mrs Lucas was wearing was removed from the scene and hasn't been seen since. Now, the Health and Safety Authority are the appropriate authority to investigate this, and I believe that the Health and Safety Authority must move immediately to establish what reports were to establish what reports were made from 2015 to 2018, precisely who reported them. I'm aware of tests done in Crosshaven and Cork, I'm aware of tests done in Kerry, tests done in Mayo, and tests done in Donegal, and in all cases the life jacket failed, or injured the wearer of the life jacket by inflating so violently, or only inflated on one side. Now, I have the documentary evidence. Now, I have the documentary evidence. The Health and Safety Authority should have the documentary evidence. And if it is true that the life jacket was faulty, and the one that Mrs Lucas was wearing turned her on her face rather than her back, then there is a case, I think, for criminal negligence on somebody's part. And a woman has lost her on her face. And a woman has lost her on her face. And a woman has lost her life. A family has lost her mother. We are six years waiting for an inquest. And the evidence of what happened on that day must be brought to the inquest. And I think somebody somewhere has to start answering questions very, very quickly. And I would ask the Leader's Office to engage with the Health and Safety Authority to have this matter investigated. The other issue that in the last few seconds, I have a lot of talk about unfortunate asylum seekers who arrive in this country, arriving without a passport through Dublin airport. It's my understanding you cannot get on an aircraft without a passport. If somebody arrives in Dublin airport from an aircraft without a passport, then I believe that they are trying to dupe the system. And I believe they should be returned to the country of origin, wherever the aircraft took off, took off from. This country has open arms for those who seek asylum. But those who tried to dupe the system should not be facilitated in any way. Thank you.