The Government has been urged to fund a bereavement counselling and support service for families that have lost relatives at sea. Mrs Carmel Currid, who lost her husband, Timmy, in a fishing boat accident two years ago, has called on the Minister for the Marine and Natural Resources, Dr Woods, to give more than verbal support for the concept.
She has already brought her case to Brussels and intends to hold a public meeting in Co Wexford next week.
The European Commission recently turned down Mrs Currid's request for assistance, but she said she is determined to pursue that initiative. Her husband, from Co Wexford, was a crewman on the whitefish vessel, the Scarlet Buccaneer which struck rocks off Howth harbour, Co Dublin, in November 1995.
The accident highlighted the lack of a 24-hour air/sea helicopter rescue service on the east coast. Since then, cover by the Air Corps has been extended, and a new 24-hour, medium-load helicopter is to be provided on contract from Dublin by Bond Helicopters from July.
The Minister for the Marine has given Mrs Currid a sympathetic hearing, and she said his Department's officials have been more than helpful. However, she said she now needs active financial help to proceed.
From her own experience, families affected by such a tragedy encounter a range of difficulties, including access to social welfare entitlements.
The social welfare battle proved to be "wearisome and drawn out", Mrs Currid said. She lost entitlements to some secondary benefits, and her widow's pension was "handed up" in exchange for the lone parents' allowance so that she could qualify for employment schemes.
Initial financial difficulties were overcome only through the goodwill and generosity of family and friends. Relevant and "quality" counselling services also proved elusive, she said. "I am determined that no family will go through what we went through after Timmy's death." Mrs Currid's proposed support service would comprise provision of informal support and help, information on social welfare and other entitlements, guidance on procedures, provision of contact names of relevant organisations and sources of professional help. Four to five members of the service residing in strategic geographic locations could respond quickly and effectively to tragedies in their region, she said. She is willing to act as a co-ordinator for the service.
Mrs Currid intends to hold a public meeting in Carrig-on-Bannow Community Centre, Wellingtonbridge, Co Wexford, on Monday night at 8 p.m.
The Department of Marine said it had given every assistance and support in putting Mrs Currid's application for funding to the EU Commission.
In the light of the "disappointing response" from the EU, the Department said it was looking into funding possibilities here for a counselling service for bereaved relatives of fishermen who have lost their lives at sea. It was also consulting with other Departments and State agencies and the fishing industry.
