Report into boating tragedy off Wexford coast delayed again

A COMPREHENSIVE report into a sea tragedy that claimed five lives has been further delayed.

The Marine Casualty Investigation Board report into the sinking of the Pisces off Wexford last summer was due in January. But it has been further delayed to allow relatives of the five people who perished two miles off Fethard-on-Sea, County Wexford, a second opportunity to make submissions and view the document.

Last night, the board said the report is almost ready to go to print and that it will be a further three weeks before it is issued to the relatives of the five who perished, the gardaí, the owner of the vessel and the marine minister.

A leaked draft suggests lives were lost because the Pisces did not have an inflatable life raft and life jackets.

The independent Marine Casualty Investigations Board’s final report into the Pisces tragedy was due to be published next week. But it will now be at least three weeks before it goes to relatives of those lost at sea and a further few days before it is released online.

The draft report suggests the 26ft open-deck fishing boat was unseaworthy, overloaded and unstable. Five people survived the sinking, two miles off Fethard-on-Sea, but among the dead were three generations of one family.

Last night, Dick Heron, secretary to the MCIB, discounted claims that the report would be given to the minister only, given earlier leaks of its findings.

“My proposal is that it be published and presented to the families and the minister. Then others will have an opportunity to get a final copy or to read it on line on www.mcib.ie,” he said.

A file on the tragedy is with the Director of Public Prosecutions.