Brother criticises salvage process

THE brother of the skipper of the Pere Charles trawler — which sank off the southeast coast earlier this year and lies on the seabed — yesterday said the Government needs to educate itself about search and salvage procedures.

The bodies of the Pere Charles skipper Tom Hennessy, 32, his uncle Pat Hennessy, 48, Billy O’Connor, 50, Pat Coady, 27, and Andriy Dyrin, 32, have not been recovered since the Dunmore East vessel sank about 2.5 miles from Hook Head, off Wexford, on January 10.

Hours later, the Kinsale-based Honeydew II sank 20 miles farther west, off Mine Head, with two crew members being rescued after spending about 18 hours in a life raft.

However, skipper Ger Bohan, 39, and his Polish crewman Tomasz Jagla, 32, were lost.

The Government is seeking tenders for the raising of the Pere Charles and the Maggie B which sank off Hook Head in March 2006.

Pat Hennessey, brother of the Pere Charles skipper, said yesterday: “This has been very frustrating and I think the Government took its time in doing the work and realised how little they know about the salvage process.

“We are wondering why no debris or bodies have been found… at least we’ll know one way or the other and we’ll get as much closure as we can,” he said.

Last week, the Government advertised for tenders for raising the vessels.

The notice on the e-tenders website, the site for Irish public tenders, invites contractors to raise both trawlers. August 17 is the deadline for tenders.