Pat Rabbitte (Dublin South West, Labour)

No one is taking issue with the Minister on the right of establishment within the EU. If this company wants to establish a company in Cyprus, it can do so. However, I am drawing the Minister's attention to the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, Article 91 of which makes it plain "There must exist a genuine link between the state and the ship". If the Minister for Finance is right, why is the Minister for Communications, Marine and Natural Resources, Deputy Noel Dempsey, according to today's The Irish Times, requiring the company to explain what the link is if the vessels are to be flagged in Cyprus? Is he just going through the motions, like the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, who can take up two different positions on the same subject on the same television programme and forget it at the same time?

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