Despite a promise of justice, Air Corps chemical exposure survivors say the Irish State continues to deny and delay accountability
Meeting Micheál Martin on Tuesday, June 20, 2017 is a moment that is etched on Gary Coll’s brain.
As the then leader of the opposition, the now Taoiseach spent the best part of an hour with the former Air Corps aviation technician and five of his colleagues in Leinster House.
They had met him, at his invitation, to plead their case about the need for urgent State intervention into the issues around chemical poisoning in the air corps.
At the time, around 40 Air Corps personnel under the age of 65 were understood to died in the previous 27 years from suicide, cardiovascular events and cancer. Hundreds more were suffering a raft of chemical exposure-related illnesses.
They all mostly maintained aircraft without using PPE, and with little or no training or advice about the toxic chemicals they were either working with or in the vicinity of.
At the end of the meeting Mr Martin, who went on to become Taoiseach in June 2020, vowed to be an advocate to their cause.
Just before the meeting concluded, Gary limped over to him and asked if he would still support air corps chemical exposure survivors when he became Taoiseach.
Gary, who last Wednesday was awarded €2m in a settlement to his High Court claim for damages against the State, recalled:
“He looked me firmly in the eye, and — as he shook my hand — said he would because it was, in his words, ‘the right thing to do’.”
Gary bristles with anger as he recalls the moment.
Read full article by Neil Michael at the Irish Examiner
https://www.irishexaminer.com/news/spotlight/arid-41570956.html
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