Trawlers to be salvaged, families are told

The brother of Tom Hennessy, skipper of the Pere Charles fishing vessel which sank in January, was yesterday hopeful that the Government's decision to salvage the trawler would help "improve the safety of the fishing industry".

The relatives of the missing crewmen from the Pere Charlesand the Maggie Byesterday afternoon met privately in Waterford with Minister for Transport Martin Cullen and Minister of State for Transport, Pat "the Cope" Gallagher.

Mr Cullen told the meeting that a salvage operation would be carried out on the trawlers, which both sank off the Wexford coast over the past year with the loss of seven lives.

The bodies of Pere Charles skipper Tom Hennessy (32), his uncle Pat Hennessy (48), Billy O'Connor (50), Pat Coady (27) and Andriy Dyrin (32) have not been recovered since the vessel sank about 2½ miles off Hook Head on January 10th.

The Honeydew IIthen foundered 20 miles farther west off Mine Head just hours later, with two crew members being rescued after spending about 18 hours in a life raft. However, skipper Ger Bohan (39) and his Polish crewman Tomasz Jagla (32) were lost.

Glynn Cott (30), a single man from Ballycotton, Co Cork, along with Polish crewman Jan Sankowski, died when the Maggie Bsank about five miles south of Hook Head on March 29th, 2006. Krzysztof Pawtowski, also Polish, was rescued.

Pere Charlesand Maggie Bwere steel trawlers, while the Honeydew II, a wooden vessel, would have sustained more damage.

After the meeting at the Tower Hotel in Waterford, Tony Hennessy said: "It's very important for fishermen who are going out to do their job that they know their vessels are safe and that they can do their work safely."

He did not want to speculate as to whether the bodies of the Pere Charles fishermen were still on board the vessel.

Glen Cott's father Cornelius added: "If this had happened 12 months ago it might have prevented the other tragedies.

"If a car went off the road, it would be investigated the following morning to find out what happened. I can't see why they can't investigate a boat . . . or two or three of them now."

Mr Cullen yesterday said the timeframe regarding yesterday's decision "demonstrated the level of involvement in looking at a whole range of issues".

He hoped that lessons could be learned by raising the vessels. He recognised the families' concerns, that "the absence of a boat makes it impossible to adequately investigate the cause of the accidents, or to ensure that reasonable steps have been taken to recover bodies".

The Minister added: "We feel that maybe the time is right given that there have been a number of incidents in the recent past to confirm whether or not those procedures are right. We won't know that until the boats are raised."

Mr Gallagher estimated that the salvage tendering process could take up to two months.

"We will now be inviting companies involved in this business to submit tenders. It's not international practice to raise boats, but if raising them can confirm the adequacy of the existing legislation, or if there's new evidence provided, then perhaps we'll have to reflect on how we should move forward," he added.