The family of the 24-year-old Irish student who died in a fire at a backpackers' hostel in Childers, Australia, has gone to Queensland. They were assisted in going on the trip by the Australian government, the Premier of Queensland, Mr Peter Beattie, said in Dublin yesterday.
Mr Beattie is making a short visit to Dublin during which he will meet the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, as part of a wider trade tour.
Yesterday he extended his condolences to the family of Julie O'Keeffe, from Bray, Co Wicklow, who died in the fire at the Palace Backpackers' Hostel on June 23rd. A total of 15 young people were killed.
"I want on behalf of the people of Queensland to pass on our condolences to the family of the young Irishwoman who lost her life in that fire. We've assisted the family to go to Australia," he said.
"I do want to assure Irish families, particularly the parents of backpackers who are in Australia, that Australia is one of the safest destinations in the world."
A full review was being carried out to see if the fire regulations needed to be tightened up, and there would be an inquest.
"If there needs to be changes in the regulations, if they need to be tightened up or action needs to be taken, we will take that action. There will be no cover-up.
"We will make certain we will get to the cause of this fire, as you'll appreciate we are quite distressed as a community as to what happened," he said.
Referring to the trade meetings, Mr Beattie said he will meet the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, on Tuesday.
He will also meet representatives of a number of organisations including the Information Society Commission, the IDA, the Economic Research Institute as well as a number of Irish companies which had done business in Australia.
"We're keen to increase the amount of trade that takes place between Queensland and Ireland." He added that he was hoping to sign a memorandum of understanding while he was here. Mr Beattie will go to London on Tuesday.