Taoiseach rejects Lost at Sea plea

TAOISEACH Brian Cowen has rejected the Ombudsman’s call to have the Lost at Sea report reopened.

Ombudsman Emily O’Reilly had laid a special report before the Oireachtas on the Department of Agriculture’s refusal to pay compensation of €245,570 to the family of Francis Byrne.

Mr Byrne, his 16-year-old son Jimmy and three other crew died when the family’s fishing boat sank in a storm off Donegal in 1981.