TWO Irish brothers whose parents died of gas poisoning while on holiday in the Canary Islands in 1994 will again raise the issue in the European Parliament this morning. Mr Ken Tansey and Mr Eugene Tansey will be guests at a meeting of the parliament's petitions committee in Brussels.
The two men are being accompanied in Brussels by an Irish couple, Mr Kevin Hynes and Mrs Margaret Hynes, who survived gas poisoning in the same complex and on the same night as the Tanseys.
Mr Vincent Tansey (69), was found dead in a Tenerife apartment on the morning of April 11th, 1994. His wife Patricia (70), was found alive but in a coma, from which she never recovered. She was brought back to Ireland abut died in the Blackrock Clinic, Dublin, on May 23rd, 1994.
Relatives of two British victims will also attend the meetings. They will be seeking a progress report on a submission made to the committee last June, raising the failure of the EU to introduce legislation on safety standards for package tours.
The brothers will also meet the EU's Director of Consumer Policy Services, Mr Peter Prendergast, and Ms Nuala Ahern MEP.
The brothers' initiative arose out of the deaths of their parents from carbon monoxide poisoning, suffered while they slept in an apartment complex at Playa de las Americas in Tenerife.
An Englishman, Mr Tony Martin, had died in the same complex three weeks earlier, also from carbon monoxide poisoning. A fourth victim of poisoning who will be represented today also English, died in an apartment, block in Majorca in 1992.
The Tanseys' inquest in October 1994 found that both deaths were due to carbon monoxide. A gas engineer who gave evidence at the inquest said the poisoning occurred from a propane gas heater in the kitchen of the apartment, which was not adequately ventilated. In the absence of sufficient oxygen, he said, propane gas was converted to carbon monoxide rather than carbon dioxide.
The inquest also heard that the apartment's ventilation system breached Spanish regulations, which were stated to be technically good but badly enforced.
The unsafe ventilation system, was said to be common in other EU countries, including Ireland, where it was equally in breach of regulations.
The legislation now being sought would include placing legal responsibility for the safety standards of holiday accommodation on tour operators. An independent inspectorate of standards in the EU would also be established.
The petitions committee initiative is distinct from a legal case which is being taken by the Tanseys in Spain. The brothers visited Tenerife three weeks ago and were informed that gas heaters at the complex in which their parents died have been replaced by electrical systems. However, they claim there are still some 500,000 gas heated apartments in Tenerife alone.
