Denial of compo for family ‘like a Third World story’

A family that was denied compensation from a shortlived Government scheme when a father of eight and his son died off Donegal was the kind of thing expected in a Third World country and not a member of the EU, the European Parliament was told yesterday.

Danny Byrne brought his case to the parliament’s petitions committee in a bid to get some redress for his mother and siblings, 33 years after his father Francis, 16-year-old brother Jimmy, and three crew members drowned off the coast of north-west Donegal in October 1981.

Former Irish Ombudsman Emily O’Reilly investigated the case in 2009 and, having found several shortcomings, recommended the family be awarded €245,500. However, the Department of the Marine rejected the plan.