The Health and Safety Authority (HSA) has offered to meet the family of a Donegal woman, the investigation of whose death in a road crash in 2001 is under review by the Garda.
Sinéad McDaid (22) was killed in a single-car collision on the Malin-Culdaff road at Dunross on June 12th, 2001.
Her family has alleged the original Garda inquiry was seriously flawed and believe that road works at the crash scene contributed to her death.
Fine Gael MEP and senator Jim Higgins has written to the HSA demanding that it investigate the accident, claiming it was a workplace accident.
A spokeswoman for the HSA said, however, the authority had been in correspondence with Ms McDaid's family to explain its position that road traffic collisions came under the remit of the Garda and not the HSA. She said that, based on the information available to the authority, "we could not conclude that it was a workplace accident".
She also said that "we would not investigate an incident unless it was directly related to a current and ongoing work activity".
The spokeswoman added that the HSA would be happy to meet her family to explain its position and had written in recent days to her father to make that offer.
In February, Garda authorities ordered a review of the original investigation but Mr Higgins also claimed that "almost five months later, the Garda inquiry is still not complete, and a lot of Garda time is being devoted to compiling irrelevant and superfluous material".
He also criticised Donegal County Council which was involved in a road-resurfacing operation on the day of the crash, while questions about signage and loose chippings have been raised.
A Garda press office spokeswoman said the Garda could not comment on individual cases.
Ms McDaid's husband, Rodney McDaid, Culdaff, Co Donegal, and her parents, Seán and Magdalene Farren, Carndonagh, Co Donegal, have pursued civil actions against Donegal County Council.
