36 Riverdale Park North
Belfast BT11 9DL
14 February 03
The Editor
Irish News
Dear Sir
I refer to the item in 8/02/03 in which FF Senator Mary White called on her government to intervene on behalf of the “Colombian Three” now on trial in that country. In response she received a sharp rebuke from government partner PD TD Fiona O’Malley who robustly defended her government’s position on this matter and in the process made some telling remarks about the FF/PD government’s attitude to the general question of assistance for Irish nationals at home or abroad who unwittingly or otherwise find themselves in need of assistance.
In December 1995 my son Desmond disappeared on the island of Djerba in Tunisia, he was reported to have been a passenger on a small aircraft enroute to Malta which it was claimed crashed into the Mediterranean sea, the government of Malta set up an inquiry the quality of which was such it would have made Widgery blush, this enquiry ran for four years and came up with the decision of pilot error, notwithstanding evidence was submitted that the aircraft was mechanically incapable of starting up never mind getting off the ground.
After five years of physical and financial exhaustion I wrote to the Mr Cowan TD requesting that my government make representations to the government of Malta on my behalf to have an independent enquiry held into the incident to establish the facts surrounding the disappearance of my son his four travelling companions and pilot Bartolo, his response though his private secretary was to say the least polite, quote: we have good relations with the government of Malta and we would not like to upset those relations by making representations of this nature, the Minister considers that such a request would imply a lack of confidence in the Maltese Board of Enquiry such a request would imply a lack of confidence in the Board’s report and that has as a serious implication of that nature would be likely to damage relations with Malta so it would not be in Ireland’s overall interest to make such a request, however the Minister did suggest that you consider taking legal advice as to the possibility of challenging in the Maltese courts what you see as omissions from the matters investigated by the Board of Enquiry or the shortcomings in its procedures.
Seven years on this latter suggestion is a ludicrous one, and is his Minister’s way of saying really we do not want to know about your problems, so the message would seem to be if you are Irish and law abiding and travelling on an Irish passport and find yourself in trouble abroad do not expect a FF/PD Minister or his government to come to your assistance.