Pat Gallagher (Donegal South West, Fianna Fail)

Talks were held recently under the auspices of the Labour Court, involving Irish Ferries Limited, SIPTU and the Seamen's Union of Ireland. The Labour Court has issued its recommendations on the dispute. The Labour Court operates as an industrial relations tribunal, hearing both sides in trade disputes and then issuing recommendations setting out its opinion on the dispute and the terms on which it should be settled. I urge both parties to give serious consideration to the court's recommendations, as did the Taoiseach when he addressed the issue on Leaders' Questions yesterday.

Maintaining and increasing Irish seafarer employment has been a focus of the Government. We established the Irish Maritime Development Office to provide our shipping and shipping services sector with a dedicated statutory development office. The Irish Maritime Development Office operates like a mini-IDA Ireland and helps my Department to make a case to Government on the sector's behalf. I am requesting the Irish Maritime Development Office to carry out a thorough evaluation of the results of existing strategies to promote the Irish maritime sector, particularly in the light of recent developments. That evaluation will include an examination of the successes achieved to date in promoting the sector and the issues to be addressed.

Following evaluation by my Department, the recommendations of the Irish Maritime Development Office will form the basis of a submission to Government. In 2004 the Government set up a new €51 million National Maritime College to train our merchant marine and Irish Naval Service cadets. Students pursuing careers at sea or in the onshore maritime sector can obtain qualifications or degrees in Europe's most modern nautical college. Together with the National College of Ireland's International Maritime Studies Institute, which opened in 2004 and which is based in the Irish Financial Services Centre in Dublin, the new maritime college will help Ireland to develop as a choice for both sea and shore-based maritime activity.

In the opinion of the Irish Maritime Development Office, there is still strong demand for the employment of Irish officers and cadets, from Irish ship owners other than Irish Ferries and from international ship owners. Part of the examination to be carried out by the development office of the existing strategies to promote the Irish maritime sector will be an assessment of the possible impact of the Irish Ferries action on the operations of the National Maritime College and the role of the Irish Maritime Development Office itself.

Additional information not given on the floor of the House.

In that regard, the European Commission is taking an increased interest in boosting seafarer employment in the Community's shipping sector. The Commission recognises that professional mariners often progress from active sea service to shore-based jobs that require maritime experience. It is the experience of other European maritime states that the onshore maritime sector can be of major economic significance.

Clearly the Government's maritime policy extends beyond seafarer employment to include the development of an onshore maritime cluster of marine related businesses. Our maritime sector covers not just the activities of our ship operators, but supporting onshore activities in such areas as freight forwarding, ship broking, insurance and financial and legal services. The Irish Maritime Development Office has estimated that the shipping services sector in Ireland has more than 9,000 employees and had an annual turnover of over €1.4 billion in 2004.

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