Mr. Brian Hogan:

Yes, there is. That is the reason for having the two directives in the Maritime Labour Convention, MLC. One was the port state directive, which essentially was an enforcement directive. The other was a flag state directive, which is addressed to the member states themselves, to have them raise the standards for their individual flags. This has been done in respect of the MLC and there was a previous set of directives, including a flag state directive, whereby all the member states had to achieve a particular standard as a flag state. In addition, within the Paris Memorandum of Understanding, we published a black-grey-white list for the performance of the states. Obviously, one wants to be on the white list and Ireland is, as are most EU member states. We have an obligation, through the directives and Council decisions, that all member states should be on the white list of the Paris Memorandum of Understanding. Through the European Union and co-operation with the Paris memorandum of understanding, there are constant efforts to try to improve the standards of the European Union's fleet. This is done through both constant meetings in Brussels and through working with the European Maritime Safety Agency, EMSA, in Lisbon, which carries out audits of all the member states to ascertain how they comply with the directives and then we all must increase our standards.