Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

The Maritime Safety Bill is a Bill to empower the Minister to give directions to have ships moved in the interests of safety, security and heritage protection at sea; to transfer to the Minister the power to give effect to the international regulations for the prevention of collisions at sea; to establish maritime safety codes of practice; and to amend the Merchant Shipping Acts 1952 to 1993. It is intended that this Bill will require detailed legal examination, which will take some time. The Bill is not progressing as quickly as one would have liked but it appears to me that the issues raised by Deputy McHugh could be considered as part of his contribution on Second Stage of the Bill.

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