State concern over oil investors after blast

THE 1980 government was worried about scaring off potential oil company investors if it placed too much emphasis on the finding of the Whiddy oil terminal disaster tribunal that the two firms involved were seriously at fault.

A tribunal was set up in 1979 after 50 people died when the French-registered Betelgeuse oil tanker caught fire and exploded at the Whiddy Island terminal in Bantry Bay, Co Cork early on the morning of January 8 that year.

The final report was completed in July 1980 but files show concerns in government about the press statement that should accompany its publication.