Seán Canney (Galway East, Independent)

Let me make a point on accident investigation qualifications. Ireland has been a member of the International Maritime Organization, IMO, since 1951. The IMO is a specialised agency of the UN responsible for regulating shipping and maritime activities globally. We participate actively in its initiatives to ensure safe, secure and environmentally sound shipping practices. The IMO casualty investigation code was adopted in 2008 and became mandatory on 1 January 2010. Its aim is to standardise the investigation of marine casualties, improve maritime safety and prevent pollution. The code states investigators should be qualified in accordance with Resolution A.996(25). As qualifications could be periodically updated, it would not be appropriate to put them into legislation. We talked about this before in respect of continuing professional development and changes to qualifications.

The MAIU will be led by the chief investigator and staffed by a team of investigators, who will all be recruited through open competition run by the Public Appointments Service, which is a centralised provider of recruitment, assessment and selection services across the civil and public service. It provides an open and transparent recruitment process to identify candidates for public sector roles and has a strong reputation for independent and merit-based selection. Therefore, I feel the Bill covers the qualifications. As well as that, the chief investigator has a huge role to play in this.