Tommy Broughan (Dublin North East, Labour)

The Minister raised a number of interesting issues. I commend the officials in the maritime safety division and the environment division of the Department for bringing forward the legislation. It is not their fault that the political administration failed to put this Bill through four or five years ago which is a remarkable amount of time. This happens all the time in the marine area as the Minister of State will have noticed. I hope in the next Government the marine will have a full Department. The Department that we three Deputies try to invigilate on the Opposition benches is three Departments in most countries — communications and broadcasting, energy and marine. For the island nation par excellence of the European Union, it is incumbent on us to elevate the Minister of State to the Cabinet in the sense that the marine is such an important and critical area on which many depend directly or indirectly. We can sometimes forget we are an island people. It is good to cross the Irish Sea or go out on the western sea.

The Minister of State made some interesting points when he said the Bill is part of a series. It would be helpful if the marine safety division could provide briefing material for the three Opposition parties on a number of outstanding convention protocols for which we should be legislating, what legislation it is intended to bring forward and what stage this is at. We had an interesting debate here on the Bunker Convention for a couple of days on the whole area of pollution. It would be appreciated if we could be informed as to what stages these are at and if we could have a few pages of briefing material which would inform our questions on Question Time and so on.

In regard to foreshores, going back over two Dála, the Bill was called the Coastal Zone Management Bill. What is the timeframe for the Bill and will we see it this year or next year?

The statement by the Minister of State in regard to the operation of the particularly sensitive sea areas was welcome news. At long last the country, through the IMO, is taking a step. I hope that is an issue the Minister and the Department will mark publicly when in a couple of months those single hull tankers will have to inform us they are entering sensitive areas. The Sea Pollution (Hazardous Substances) (Compensation) Bill 2000, sets up the liability regime but the substantive issue is critical to the ecosystem of our island nation. We have been lethargic about this whole area. I hope the Minister of State regards it as part of his period on the bridge or of his watch, so to speak, to ensure that this Bill will be the means of providing a serious mentoring and development of maritime resources. I encourage the Minister of State to come forward on those issues and update the House on the situation. I thank him for accepting amendments on Committee and Report Stages and commend the Bill.

See this speech in context