Noel Dempsey (Meath West, Fianna Fail)

The Deputy asked about ships transferring to flags of convenience. If a ship is transferring from an Irish flag, its certificate lapses automatically and the new flag state must supply a certificate. SOLAS is an international agreement involving much co-operation between countries. Ships which try to escape compliance with the codes are tracked by various states with the co-operation of other countries.

At the moment, Ireland has 30 internationally trading merchant ships with a gross tonnage, GT, of more than 500. These are mainly general cargo ships but there are a number of feeder container ships. There are two small chemical oil tankers, a research ship and a lighthouse tender ship. There are no internationally trading passenger ships with a GT of between 300 and 500 flying the Irish flag. There are a number of ships, but most of these operate domestically. As I mentioned earlier, there are no internationally trading oil tankers in the 150-500 GT size category. As well as merchant ships, there are 100 domestic passenger ships ranging in size from 12 to 300 passengers - these are the island ferries, sightseeing vessels and so on.

We have 55 fishing vessels of length greater than 24 m and 220 fishing vessels between 15m and 24 m. These are currently being entered into the new survey safety certification regime, into which all vessels must be entered by 1 October. There are about 1,500 small fishing vessels of less than 15 m on the register. In addition, there are several thousand recreational craft which are technically Irish ships. Recreational craft with a net tonnage of more than 15 are not required to be registered when they operate within the State or the UK. Any recreational craft owned by an Irish citizen or body corporate which sails beyond Ireland or the UK must be registered with an Irish flag.

The Deputy asked about flags of convenience. This phrase does not actually refer to a formally recognised system. There are officially recognised systems in both the EU and the international organisations for identifying the high-risk ships mentioned by the Deputy. As the Deputy will recall, there are black, grey and white lists of flag states which are published under the Paris memorandum of understanding. The lists are published on a website and are used by safety inspectors to target various ships visiting Irish and European ports. Details of the inspections and detentions carried out under the port state control regime are published on the Department's website. The Deputy made a point about people trying to escape compliance with the codes. Much information is made public and shared by the various signatories to the memorandum and more generally under the SOLAS provisions. Thus, there is no easy escape for them.

The Deputy mentioned that the Joint Committee on Transport wished to invite representatives of the Irish Maritime Development Office to appear before the committee. I am not sure whether he said it was having difficulty with this-----

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