Lost at Sea Scheme -Ombudsman slams government 'lack of accountability'
By Sue Doherty
The Ombudsman, Emily O’Reilly, has launched a scathing attack on the government’s refusal to fully debate her report on the Lost at Sea Scheme.
Ms O’Reilly told a conference on corporate governance on Tuesday: “Parliament in Ireland has been side-lined and is no longer in a position to hold the executive to account.”
She added: “Unfortunately, the model of government set out in the Irish Constitution has become more of a fiction than a reality. In practice the Dil, and to a slightly lesser extent the Seanad, is controlled very firmly by the Government parties through the operation of the whip system.”
The Ombudsman’s report recommended payment of 250,000 euro to a Bruckless family who she said were wrongly excluded from the Lost at Sea Scheme. Skipper Francis Byrne and his 16-year-old son James died, along with three others, when their boat the Skifjord sank off Burtonport on October 31, 1981. The family applied to the Scheme, but the deadline had passed and their application was rejected as ineligible. The Ombudsman’s investigation found that the scheme should have been more widely advertised. She said that, although the Scheme itself had not paid out compensation as such, the family should receive a payment of 250,000 euro as redress for having been wrongly excluded.
On December 14 last, after her recommendations were rejected by the Minister for State at the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, Ms O’Reilly sent her report to the Dil and Seanad for consideration, asking them to “take whatever action they deemed appropriate”.
The issue was discussed in the Dil on February 2 and in the Seanad on February 14. However, Ms O’Reilly says that on both occasions the discussions consisted of “a series of statements rather than any detailed engagement with the substance of the investigation” and no further action was recommended.
On March 2 and 3, members of the opposition tried to have the report referred to Oireachtas committees, but this was again rejected. On all occasions, members voted along party lines.
Profound change needed
Ms O’Reilly said using the party whip to prevent discussion of her recommendations is a symptom of the “poor governance in a number of our key private and public institutions [that] lies at the heart of the downturn”.
The Lost at Sea case, she argued tracks “a line that runs from maladministration in a Government Department right through to poor Governance at the very highest level of this State.
“The economic and political crises that face this country will never be dealt with unless the culture and values of the political and administrative classes undergo profound change. An investigation by an Ombudsman may seem small scale in comparison to the huge financial challenges around us, yet it is a microcosm nonetheless of the faultlines within our system.”
Responsibilities
Ms O’Reilly noted that “the last Financial Regulator was excoriated for not doing his job adequately...” Her office, she said, had fulfilled its responsibilities, but to no avail.
The Ombudsman quoted the former head of Unilever, Niall Fitzgerald who says his main worry about Ireland is “that there are too many people who have a vested interest in there being no accountability. If the leaders of a society are not prepared to hold themselves accountable, or there are not the institutions which are sufficiently independent to hold them accountable, then I think you have a very serious problem on your hands."
Ms O’Reilly concluded by asking the main political parties to “relax the very rigid party discipline now there and to accept that TDs should have some freedom to follow the dictates of their own conscience”.
She also said she hoped the “the Oireachtas will find a mechanism to allow the matter [the Lost at Sea Report] be dealt with in a calm and reasonable fashion.”
Reaction
Speaking on behalf of the family, Danny Byrne told the Democrat they welcome the Ombudsman’s comments. He worries, however, that they will fall on deaf ears. “My fear is that the government will once again dismiss her criticisms, as they have dismissed us over the years, with a wave of the hand.
Fine Gael’s Agriculture Spokesperson, Michael Creed TD said the Ombudsman’s comments were “damning” and asked the Taoiseach to “revisit his decision” not to refer the Ombudsman’s report to committee.
The party’s Fisheries Spokesperson, Tom Sheahan TD added: “Deputy Frank Fahey has repeatedly claimed that he is vindicated by the Ombudsman’s report into the Lost at Sea scheme. If this is true then what have Deputy Fahey and Fianna Fil got to fear from a committee examination of the report? The Ombudsman’s latest intervention is welcome but it is extremely damaging to her office that she has been forced into this situation by Fianna Fil’s determination, with the blessing of the Greens, to stifle scrutiny of this report.”
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Saturday 04 February 2012
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