Last Thursday, the jury at the inquest into the death of Caitríona Lucas, a Coast Guard volunteer, returned a unanimous verdict of death by misadventure. The jury were told that it was not open to them to return a verdict of unlawful killing. The case contained a number of very disturbing features and the Coast Guard and the Department have a lot of questions to answer. I asked parliamentary questions about evidence that appeared to be missing. They were not answered on the basis that there was an inquest under way, yet the coroner at the conclusion of the inquest noted that that evidence was still missing. The Coast Guard delayed the investigation by the Health and Safety Authority, HSA, arguing that the volunteers who were putting their lives on the line were not employees and, therefore, the HSA had no remit to investigate. At the conclusion, the family were very critical of successive Ministers for Transport, including Deputies Varadkar and Donohoe, for failure to implement safety recommendations in 2012.

When you are around a while, you begin to recognise a cover-up, and a State cover-up has a particular whiff. This stinks. Will the Taoiseach organise a statutory inquiry into the death of Caitríona Lucas to make sure this never again happens to another volunteer in Ireland?

Obviously, I am familiar with the sad death of Ms Lucas and I remember it very well. I want to extend my condolences to her family and friends, the wider community and the other Coast Guard volunteers. I do not know all the facts of this. Coroners act independently of Government and I am not going to make commitments here on the hoof. I will certainly speak to the Minister, Deputy Ryan, about it and ask him to reply to the Deputy directly.