Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 32:

In page 40, between lines 35 and 36, to insert the following:“Amendment of section 79 of Act of 1996 (power of Minister to re-organise provision of pilotage services)

47.The following is substituted for section 79 of the Act of 1996:

“79. (1)The Minister may by order—

(a) establish one or more additional pilotage districts (that is to say, districts in which pilotage shall be regulated in the like manner to that provided by this Part in relation to a pilotage district mentioned in section 56) and define the limits of such a district or of such districts,

(b) specify the circumstances in which pilotage shall be compulsory in a pilotage district established under paragraph (a),

(c) abolish a pilotage district (being a pilotage district mentioned in section 56 or established under paragraph (a)),

(d) alter the limits of a pilotage district to which paragraph (a), (e) or this paragraph relates, or

(e) subject to section 57(2), provide for the limits of a pilotage district referred to in Part II of the Third Schedule in lieu of the limits set out in that Part,

and nothing in section 56 shall be construed as restricting or limiting the exercise by the Minister of his or her powers under this section in relation to a pilotage district mentioned in that section.

(2) (a) An order under paragraph (a) of subsection (1) shall confer on a specified person the function of organising and ensuring the provision of pilotage services in the pilotage district to which the order relates. That person shall perform that function by one of the means specified in section 56(1). This Act in so far as it relates to pilotage services otherwise applies to the pilotage district concerned with the substitution for references to ‘company’, in each place where it occurs (other than in this subsection), of references to that person and any other necessary modifications.

(b) An order under subsection (1) may contain such incidental, supplementary and consequential provisions as appear to the Minister to be necessary or expedient.

(c) In this subsection ‘specified person’ includes a company, a local authority and, in the case of a fishery harbour centre (within the meaning of the ), the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine.

(3) In deciding whether or not to make an order under this section the Minister shall have regard to the following:

(a) any existing or proposed harbour limits to which the pilotage district or proposed pilotage district relates or would relate, and

(b) navigational safety.

(4) The powers of the Minister under this section are in addition to his or her powers under section 43.”.”.

This is another technical amendment and I am introducing it to facilitate the continued safe management of shipping operations within fishery harbour centres, which are under the control of my colleague, the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Deputy Simon Coveney.

The amendment relates solely to subsection (2)(c) and is the insertion of a reference to the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine. As the section as a whole has been amended a few times since its original drafting in 1996, the Office of the Parliamentary Counsel thought it best to reproduce the whole section to aid understanding.

The effect of the amendment will be that if the Minister for Agriculture, Food and Marine deems it necessary, I can create a pilotage district for a particular fishery harbour centre and in doing so designate the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine as the responsible authority to regulate pilotage within that harbour in line with the requirements of the Harbours Act 1996. This, for example, would allow the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine to make pilotage by-laws.