Noel Dempsey (Meath West, Fianna Fail)

If it was ruled out of order I had better not. We can return to the amendments to the amendments. I will continue to speak to my amendments. Amendment No. 75 provides section 60 to prescribe a procedure for the submission of proposals to the Minister for transport by the owner of an Irish ship on international voyages for safe manning and the issue of safe manning documents. No unauthorised change can be made in the minimum safe manning of the ship. A ship is prohibited from going to sea without having a minimum safe manning document in force.

Amendment No. 76 provides section 61 to impose duties on owners and masters of ships, to which this Chapter applies, to comply with safe manning requirements. Amendment No. 77 provides 62 which provides enforcement powers for surveyors of ships to check for compliance with this Chapter through the inspection and issue of notices of non-compliance. Amendment No. 78 provides section 63 to set out the maximum monetary fines that the master or owner of a ship are liable for if convicted in court of the breach of minimum safe manning requirements.

The two amendments to amendment No. 78 address the 10% annual turnover. We have had a full discussion on those and have reached an agreement as to how we will approach that in the future.

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