An inquest into the death of Irish Coast Guard volunteer Caitriona Lucas is expected to be adjourned today (April 12), following an application by legal representatives for the Lucas family for a number of witnesses and documentation.
Lawyers for Ms Lucas’s family have requested that former ministers of transport, including Taoiseach Leo Varadkar, Paschal Donohoe and Shane Ross, be called before the hearing.
The Lucas family lawyers have also applied to Limerick city coroner John McNamara for a number of other witnesses to be called.
These include the former head of the Irish Coast Guard, the State’s chief surveyor, Marine Casualty Investigation Board (MCIB) members, several senior Department of Transport officials, and Coast Guard personnel present on the day Ms Lucas died.
In addition, the legal team has asked if the whereabouts of Ms Lucas’s lifejacket can be established and if it will be produced at the inquest.
The Limerick coroner’s office has confirmed that the inquest in Kilmallock, Co Limerick “will take the form of a preliminary hearing with an adjournment to a later date”.
It is over six years since Ms Lucas (41) lost her life after a RIB attached to the Kilkee Coast Guard unit, which she was crewing on, capsized during a search for a missing man on September 12th, 2016.
The 41-year-old mother of two, a highly experienced member of Doolin Coast Guard and librarian, was the first Irish Coast Guard volunteer to die during a tasking.
Two investigations were completed some time ago into the circumstances surrounding her death, including an MCIB report released in December 2018.
After a separate investigation was completed by the Health and Safety Authority (HSA), Ms Lucas’s husband, Bernard, was informed by the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) that no criminal charges would be brought.
The MCIB report was critical of the Irish Coast Guard’s safety management and catalogued a number of systems and equipment failures in relation to the Kilkee Coast Guard unit.
However, Mr Lucas said that he “very disappointed” that the published MCIB report had failed to address questions over equipment his wife was wearing, and both he and members of the Kilkee Coast Guard unit queried the location for the incident given in the report.
The Lucas family lawyers have applied for documents, including a copy of an internal Irish Coast Guard investigation of February 2015.
This report was compiled but not circulated to Coast Guard personnel after an incident in August 2014 where a Coast Guard RIB capsized off Kerry in a shallow “surf zone”.
The incident was similar to that which occurred off Kilkee.
Maritime lawyer Michael Kingston, who is representing the Lucas family on the instruction of solicitor Ronan Connolly, said a number of other key documents had been applied for as part of the inquest hearing, but had not yet been provided by the Department of Transport.
Mr Kingston said that former transport ministers, including Mr Varadkar and Mr Donohoe, were being called as witnesses due to their role in transposing a European directive into Irish law.
The directive provided for the establishment of an independent maritime investigation system and was not transposed correctly. This led to a European Court of Justice judgment issued against Ireland in July 2020, he noted.
New legislation for an independent maritime investigations unit is currently before the Oireachtas.
Mr Kingston said that it was “extremely important that the full facts of Ms Lucas’s death are established”.
He said it was “critically important in the public interest in relation to the safety of Irish Coast Guard personnel, and all Irish citizens involved in maritime activities”.
The coroner’s role as an independent officeholder is to inquire into the circumstances of sudden, unexplained, violent and unnatural deaths.
The Lucas family lawyers are seeking assurance that legal costs will be paid for by the State, given that she died while on active Irish Coast Guard duty.