Mr. Michael Kingston:

I thank Deputy Ó Murchú. That is it in a nutshell. There are other issues under this proposed legislation. Mr. McCarthy and I have provided comments on those under the heads of the Bill. There are other issues surrounding some of the draft legislation, for example where it says there should be a 60:40 gender split. This is unrealistic in the maritime world. Most of the students coming out from the National Maritime College of Ireland currently are male. Across most of the members of the maritime community, there is a heavy weight towards male at the moment. That is not to say it is not being addressed, but we cannot have a provision like that in the Act at the moment because it would preclude most of the experience. This is something the whole maritime community is working on.

It is also being worked on by the International Maritime Organization. I have involved the head of academics at the National Maritime College of Ireland, Captain Sinéad Reen, in those discussions. Anyway, it is unrealistic to preclude a provision like that in the Act. It should be left to a bottom-up approach so that we can change it to the other way around rather than what is in the Act. This is because it could have an adverse consequence.

There is also a provision in the legislation to the effect that members of the Department should be precluded from being a part of the board or investigation unit, as hopefully it will be, having heard the evidence today. That is fine for current members but the legislation also refers to ex-members. That is not a sensible approach because there are excellent individuals who are well-qualified in the Department of Transport. When they leave, they are entitled to seek and earn a livelihood. Not only would it be perhaps unconstitutional to prevent them from being able to earn a livelihood, but it would be shooting ourselves in the foot in terms of great maritime experience. I suggest that be changed.

There are several other specific issues in the commentary. There is something that I may discuss further with other members, if asked. However, we must remember that proper regulation saves lives, as does a proper implementation of regulation. I set out examples of that in my briefing note. That that is what these changes, if they are done correctly, will achieve. We need to focus on the proper implementation of regulation in Ireland, starting with this legislation, to set the analysis of the regulatory framework for when accidents arise.