James Lawless (Kildare North, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

It is a pleasure to be before the committee for my first and probably for my last time in the term of this Dáil. It is good to join the members. I nearly went to the wrong side of the committee room out of force of habit.

I will give a brief opening statement on the Bill. It passed through Second Stage quite recently. I appreciate the committee's accommodation in taking Committee Stage today and I hope we will be able to move to Report Stage in the very near future because it is important.

One of the main objectives of this Bill is to provide for the establishment of a marine accident investigation unit, MAIU, within the Department of Transport. It provides for a transition from the current structure, where the Marine Casualty Investigation Board, MCIB, is the designated investigative body, to the establishment of a full-time permanent MAIU within the Department of Transport, similar to the Air Accident Investigation Unit and the Railway Accident Investigation Unit.

We have also taken the opportunity through this Bill to provide for a regulatory regime to be put in place for the construction and operation of offshore service vessels, which will operate in Ireland to support the offshore renewable energy sector and provide for the carriage of industrial personnel. This will provide a robust system to ensure the vessels are safe to operate and provide protection to their crews and the industrial personnel being carried. This regulatory regime has resulted in the need for some consequential amendments to our existing primary legislation, which I have also included in the Bill, to ensure it is consistent with the regime we now wish to put in place. Therefore, the Bill has two purposes, one being to create the new MAIU and the other being to provide for the regulatory regime for the offshore service vessels industry, which will only grow in the years to come.

I am also taking the opportunity to update the references to two conventions - the International Maritime Organization’s International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea, usually referred to as SOLAS, and the International Labour Organization’s Maritime Labour Convention - in existing legislation to enable more recent amendments to these conventions to be addressed in national secondary legislation. I am taking the opportunity to update the references to international treaty obligations while updating the merchant shipping Acts.

Pre-legislative scrutiny was carried out by the Joint Committee on Transport and Communications last year and the report was published on 2 May 2023. I thank the committee members for their work on it. I am pleased to say we have taken on board several recommendations. They strengthen the Bill, so the work of the committee was very productive and of assistance to my Department.

I propose several amendments, which I am happy to discuss with members as required. I propose amendments on the processing of personal data under the EU General Data Protection Regulation and the Data Protection Act 2018. Another amendment I propose relates to ensuring the MAIU’s accident investigation reports are prohibited from being used in criminal proceedings. This will ensure witnesses and those involved in marine accidents can provide information without the fear of its being used in litigation. It is not the purpose of a marine safety investigation of the MAIU to apportion blame or liability, so the amendment is important in this regard. A common principle in natural justice is that the nature of an inquiry is such that blame and sanction are not apportioned. The aim is to get to the truth of what occurred. That is an important principle to uphold in the legislation.

I also propose some consequential amendments, which will ensure we have the necessary survey powers in place to survey the safety equipment that will be placed on board offshore service vessels. These consequential amendments make changes to several pieces of existing primary legislation that provide for the requirement to carry safety equipment on board Irish ships and for the inspection of that equipment. These are minor amendments to existing primary provisions but they have a real-world impact. The survey of safety equipment is vital to ensure that a ship has on board all of the appropriate safety equipment for its safe navigation and to manage emergencies. The survey will ensure the equipment is maintained in an appropriate manner and replaced when coming to the end of its life. It may well save lives.

In addition to the main amendments I have just outlined, I propose two small technical amendments. I will refer to them when dealing with them but I just want to ensure the committee that they are very technical in nature.

I take this opportunity to express my appreciation for the work to date of the MCIB, its board and investigators. The move towards a full-time, permanent maritime investigation resource will build on the important contribution that the MCIB has made and that we seek to grow in this Bill. I thank the Chair and committee members for facilitating this meeting today. I look forward to discussing the Bill in detail.