"Lessons will have to be learned from this tragedy, but at the moment our thoughts and prayers are with the families of the deceased." The Minister of State at the Department of the Marine, Mr John Browne, put it thus on Sunday when the sinking of the fishing craft Pisces off Fethard-on-Sea was confirmed.
Sunday's victims include three generations of one family. The youngest, a 14-year-old boy, was last seen alive clinging to a plastic drum in the water. It is a grim tally at the end of what started as a pleasure trip on a summer's morning.
The Minister of State properly and humanely addressed himself firstly to the grief of the bereaved. But even as condolences and sympathy are expressed, questions must be asked and answers sought about this tragic incident. It fits into a pattern which is all too familiar around our coasts and which repeats itself with a wearying predictability year after year.
At this writing there is no information on what caused the vessel to sink in the first place. That will probably be remedied fairly swiftly as survivors give their account of what happened and as technical investigation of the wreck gets under way. But it appears that none of the fishing party - neither the victims nor those rescued - was wearing life-jackets. Some survivors were holding on to plastic fenders in the water.
It seems that this was a survivable incident had those involved been wearing suitable safety equipment. Rescue craft were on the scene relatively quickly. Tide and wind were running together but the sea was not unduly rough and with the water at summer temperatures, the threat of hypothermia was not immediate. With good, serviceable lifejackets, the crew and passengers could very probably have come through the sinking of the craft with no greater harm than a wetting and a bad fright.
Little more can or should be said until the official inquiries are complete. But those in authority have a responsibility to the public to explain why and how it happened.
It is not possible to legislate for human behaviour in every single instance. But it is essential to know if the State's regulatory agencies have any real effect in safety issues at the level of individual craft, especially in smaller harbours. In so many areas which have a bearing on public safety, Ireland has an excess of law and a deficit of enforcement.