Dan Boyle (Cork South Central, Green Party)

In principle, the laying of this Bill before the House is welcome. Everyone agrees there is a need for improved legislation on maritime safety. Particular issues have arisen over this past decade of added prosperity, where people are experiencing the type of maritime traffic on our beaches and coastlines we never had to anticipate in the past. This is particularly true of fast powered watercraft, such as jet skis and speedboats. There has been some attempt to address this issue at local government level. A colleague on Youghal Town Council, Councillor Liam Burke, has been banging this drum for a long time. The lack of either local by-laws or national legislation on jet skis means a plethora of accidents is waiting to happen. On that level alone, the introduction of this Bill is welcome.

It is to be hoped that the Bill, when passed, will give local authorities additional powers within their own by-laws to specify the type of watercraft may be used in their areas, the places they can be operated in and the speed at which they can travel. The current openness of usage of such vehicles is unacceptable and while there have been a number of serious accidents, the question is why many more have not happened in the existing unregulated legislative environment.

The measure in the Bill dealing with unseaworthy vessels is welcome. This is an area to which we must pay particular attention because we have just heard, in response to questions to the Department of Finance, that a taxation measure has been adopted in the last three years to allow us to compete with other countries that have adopted a low tonnage tax regime for international vessels. This measure means that Ireland can compete with countries such as Liberia and Barbados. However, the danger of this approach is that while it might encourage companies with a large number of vessels to standardise their tax regime in Ireland at very low rates, it may also attract vessels of an unsound type. My party is not convinced that the Government and the regulatory authorities have spent sufficient time ensuring that such tax reliefs are not applied to vessels that are plainly unseaworthy and that the policy itself is not attracting such vessels. The Minister of State, in his response, may try to convince us otherwise but we must be more proactive and vigilant in this area.

The provisions in the Bill dealing with the use of drugs and alcohol are such that one must ask why they were not introduced before now. There was obviously a major lacuna in maritime safety legislation in that we have not been able to monitor or take people to task who are not in control of vessels at sea. While the open ocean is a vast expanse where people in various stages of inebriation or intoxication might appear to be incapable of wreaking havoc, incidents involving other maritime traffic will always expose deficiencies in this area.

The Bill takes into account our coastal waters but does not include waters under the management of Waterways Ireland. While I appreciate that the division of Government responsibilities means that Waterways Ireland is under the jurisdiction of the Department of Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs, the Minister of State might explain why this is the case. We are dealing with legislation on maritime safety which is as important on our inland waters and harbour areas as in our coastal regions. I accept that harbour companies are part of this legislation but there is a danger that an individual taking a vessel from the coastal waters through a harbour into an inland waterway might escape the full rigours of this new law if he or she is in an area that is not the responsibility of the Department of Communications, Marine and Natural Resources or a harbour company, in effect, an area managed by Waterways Ireland. If that type of double standard is allowed to exist, it will be a poor day's work in terms of producing proper legislation.

On the question of public acceptance of and demand for this legislation, the central measure is the obligation for children up to the age of 16 to wear a life-jacket while on board pleasure craft. Again, this is so obvious that it begs the question as to why it has taken so long to put such a provision into legislation. However, it would be churlish to deny that it is an important provision and the House will wholeheartedly support it.

The Minister of State, coming as he does from County Donegal, will be aware of the type of safety conditions that existed in the past. When I was a child visiting my father's island of Arranmore, the ferry was not the modern vessel it is today but a fishing boat. The safety measures consisted of a tyre on either side of the vessel, as one travelled for 30 or 35 minutes from Burtonport to Arranmore. That was not that long ago. It was in the past 20 or 30 years that we permitted those standards to exist. It is an indication of progress that we have gone beyond such standards.

I ask that more attention be paid to and greater resources provided for the coastguard service. The service is voluntary and for an island nation, the small, albeit growing, resources that have been invested in it do not match up to the level of resources that should be provided and the type of organisation that should be allowed to exist to protect our coastline and provide support for coastal communities.

In my constituency, we have the advantage of having a number of excellent coastguard groups in Oysterhaven, which will shortly be transferred to a new Dáil constituency, and Crosshaven. The coastguard group in the latter area operates in premises that, to all intents and purposes, have not been renovated since the turn of the century. While I appreciate that the group in Oysterhaven operates from relatively new premises, I would welcome an indication from the Government of a long-term programme to ensure that all coastguard groups operate from modern premises and are fully resourced by a set date. The end of this decade would be a good target in that regard.

There is also a need to integrate fully the coastguard organisation — a voluntary service on the whole — into the emergency services. There is already a close relationship between members of coastguard groups and the local fire brigade service, but the coastguard should become a more important part of the major emergency plans in certain parts of the country. My constituency, for example, is an area that needs a major emergency plan that will work effectively in the event of an accident because of the location of many high-risk industries in Cork Harbour. The coastguard, because of its expertise and experience, can play an important role in the event of the major emergency plan being activated.

While the Bill contains many necessary legislative provisions, there is a question surrounding the size and level of fines and how effective they will be once the legislation is enacted. That question may come within the scope of other legislation, due to be put before the House by the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, dealing with fines in general. However, when the House passes a Bill of this nature, it should take into account that what seems to be an acceptable fine at present will soon appear a paltry or minuscule sum because of inflation, the passage of time and the lack of opportunity to review such legislation in a timely fashion. Perhaps an index-linking mechanism could be built into legislation. I am not sure if that is possible. It is something for the Parliamentary Counsel to examine. If not, maybe a review could be carried out in the area of fines. This is one of the few cases where I would approve of a ministerial order being put into a Bill and subsequently being enacted without new legislation. The Minister could be given additional power to review every three or five years the need to increase fines.

I welcome the Bill and hope it will be backed up with adequate resources that will allow all bodies concerned — harbour companies, agencies like the Coast Guard and, in particular, organisations coming on stream with regard to the use of fast-powered watercraft — to work collectively to ensure needless deaths or accidents do not occur.

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