A solicitor representing some of the families who lost loved ones in the Creeslough explosion said they are experiencing a “vacuum of information”.
Sligo-based Damien Tansey was speaking after Donegal County Council granted planning permission to Vivo Shell Limited to redevelop a service station at the site.
Ten people – four men, three women and three children – ranging in age from five to 59, lost their lives in the tragedy on 7 October 2022.
“They’re not getting any information, and we’re more than two years down the road,” said Damien Tansey.
“How long more do they have to wait for the information that they’re entitled to?”
Speaking on RTÉ News at One, Mr Tansey said that the families he represents are troubled beyond description and are very disappointed with the council for granting planning for the redevelopment of the service station site.
He said that he accepted that the council was acting bona fide, but the timing is what the family are concerned about.
“The families are not intent on blocking the planning permission per say,” he added.
“They are intent instead on ensuring that the planning permission and any development that might ensue, pursuant to it, does not happen until investigations are completed”.
“There is nothing to prevent the current owners pressing ahead with the development if they have planning permission to do so.”
The solicitor said that the families feel the site is being treated as a normal development site when it is not, as a tragedy of enormous proportions happened there.
He added that the preservation of the evidence still on the site is of the utmost importance.
“The county council one would expect would dovetail with the other agencies of the State that are involved in forensic and detailed examinations”.
He said that it was his understanding that the conclusion of these investigations was still some distance away.
“One would expect that an injunction might be secured with a view to securing the site,” he said.
“Unless that happens, there is nothing to prevent the current owners pressing ahead with the development if they have planning permission to do so.
“It would appear that that is the intent of the current owners”.
Mr Tansey said that the families need to hear from the three State agencies currently involved in extensive investigation, which are An Garda Síochána, the Health and Safety Authority and the Commission for the Regulation of Utilities who will be informed by those outcomes.
He said that only when they have the full reports, will the families give their verdict on whether the site should be developed to replace the business that was there before the explosion and its further development.
Mr Tansey explained that a meeting took place in October last year with the then Minister for Justice, Agriculture Minister and Transport Minister.
The families were informed about this planning application and that immediate steps should be taken so that no development would be allowed to proceed at the site until the investigations were completed.
He said at that time, the families also called on the Government to set up a statutory inquiry, as they see it as their role in terms of vindicating the lives of their loved ones.
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