Musician and Doolin Coast Guard volunteer Davy Spillane has settled High Court proceedings pursued against the Minister for Transport and the Irish Coast Guard.
The case arose after the death of Spillane’s Doolin Coast Guard colleague and friend Caitriona Lucas in September 2016.
The settlement has been welcomed by the Irish Coast Guard Volunteers’ Representative Association (ICGVRA) which says it highlights “serious issues” relating to the Irish Coast Guard which “the Government is refusing to face”.
Spillane, who was an advanced coxswain with 20 years’ experience with the Doolin Coast Guard, has declined to comment on the settlement.
Spillane was tasked by Doolin Coast Guard to respond after the neighbouring Kilkee Coast Guard unit’s rigid inflatable boat (RIB) capsized on September 12th, 2016, during a sea search for a missing man.
Ms Lucas, one of Doolin’s most experienced volunteers, had travelled earlier that day by road to Kilkee to assist in the search.
She was in a RIB with two Kilkee volunteers when the vessel capsized in a shallow surf zone and all three were thrown into the water and lost their helmets.
The other two crew were rescued, while Ms Lucas, who was recorded in drone footage holding on to the port section of the RIB but being repeatedly washed off by waves, did not survive.
A postmortem identified a trauma to the side of Ms Lucas’s head at a point where it should have been protected by her helmet. Her lifejacket was also not inflated.
A report by the Marine Casualty Investigation Board (MCIB) identified a catalogue of safety defects and lack of regulatory compliance, and criticised the Irish Coast Guard for failing to have an effective safety management system in place.
A separate Health and Safety Authority investigation resulted in a file being sent to the Director of Public Prosecutions, which decided no criminal charges should be brought.
The Irish Coast Guard defended its safety-management system at the time.
Legal actions were subsequently filed by a number of Coast Guard volunteers with both Doolin and Kilkee relating to safety and management issues. A case taken by Caitriona’s husband, Bernard, was settled last year,
Volunteers with both the Doolin and Kilkee units claimed that there was no adequate “debrief” after Ms Lucas’s death.
During a survival at sea exercise organised off Doolin pier shortly after the incident, Spillane reported that his drysuit started filling with water. His neckseal subsequently separated from his drysuit.
He made a statement to the safety officer that the personal protection equipment, as in helmet, drysuit and lifejacket, were not fit for purpose.
ICGVRA spokesman Jim Griffin paid tribute to Spillane for taking the case.
The group has sought a meeting with the Minister for Transport and hopes to address the Oireachtas transport committee shortly.
Asked to comment on the outcome of Spillane’s proceedings, the State Claims Agency said it “does not comment on the detail of individual cases”.
The Department of Transport, which also comments on behalf of the Irish Coast Guard, said that “Doolin Coast Guard Unit has been re-constituted on an interim basis to ensure rescue services are available”, and appointments would begin in April for a more “permanent” unit.
The department said that the Coastal Unit Advisory Group (CUAG) is “the officially recognised representative body for volunteers in service”, and it declined to respond specifically to the criticisms levelled by the ICGVRA.
“The Coast Guard is currently addressing the suite of recommendations within the Mulvey report in respect of CUAG,” it said.
This refers to a recent report by Kieran Mulvey who was appointed to mediate after six resignations from Doolin Coast Guard last year.