Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)

I accept I may be out of my depth on the technical side of this amendment. It distinguishes between broadcasting that occurs on commercial shipping and fisheries vessels such as that for navigation, communications between vessels, the Coast Guard and so forth. There is a grey area, however, with privately owned vessels. Anyone lucky enough to own a sailing yacht or motor boat will have a modern communications capacity on their vessel for GPS, chart-plotting systems, satellite links for weather forecast updates and so forth. Section 180(1), which is not being amended, states:

...'broadcast' means the transmission, relaying or distributing by wireless telegraphy of communications, sounds, signs, visual images or signals, intended for direct reception by the general public whether such communications, sounds, signs, visual images or signals are actually received or not;...

While I accept it is better to have shipping broadcasts coming under the remit of the Minister for Transport, who will be responsible for communications from privately owned vessels?

I assume the new authority will not be responsible because that would be farcical. Presumably it is not the Department of Transport either, because the latter has no role in respect of privately owned leisure vessels. There appears to be a vacuum in this regard on which I seek clarity.

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