Thomas Pringle (Donegal South West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 3:

In page 52, to delete lines 4 and 5 and substitute the following:

“Arklow, Ballycotton, Baltimore, Castletownbere, Clogherhead, Cork, Dingle, Drogheda, Dublin, Dundalk, Dunmore East, Galway, Greencastle, Howth, Killybegs, Kilmore Quay, Kinsale, Limerick, Ros A Mhil, Skibbereen, Sligo, Tralee, Union Hall, Waterford, Westport and Wexford.”.

Section 30 makes provision for the list of ports of registration included in Schedule 3. The Bill also provides that the Minister can, by means of regulation, add ports to the list. Amendment No. 3 in my name proposes the addition of Ballycotton, Baltimore, Castletownbere, Clogherhead, Dingle, Dunmore East, Greencastle, Howth, Killybegs, Kilmore Quay, Kinsale, Ros a Mhíl and Union Hall to the list. The list contained in the Bill, as it stands, probably dates from a period when shipping was probably not as well developed. Some of the ports included on the list are traditional ports which have been in operation since the 19th century or the early 20th century and at which shipping business is carried out. I refer in this regard to Sligo and other ports. Included on the list proposed in the amendment are a number of fishery harbour centres at and out of which a great deal of fishing, boating and shipping activity takes place. Killybegs is the largest port, by volume, in the country. In fishing terms, Castletownbere is probably as busy - in value terms - as some of the shipping ports.

In the context of the ports I wish to have included in the list, I am of the view that it would be important for fishermen to be able to register their vessels in their ports of origin. The amendment seeks to ensure that the people who use the ports in question would be given registration numbers which apply to those ports. As I understand it, what I am suggesting would not place a huge additional administrative burden on the Department. Basically, all it would need to do would be to draw up new registration lettering codes for the relevant ports. The Bill also provides for the transfer of registrations from one port to another. All of the boats operating out of Killybegs are either registered in Dublin or Sligo. Many of our fishing vessels operate in international waters off Norway, Scotland, France, Spain and north and west Africa and it would be psychologically important for the owners and crews of these vessels if their home ports were recognised within their registration numbers. That is what I am hoping to achieve by means of the amendment.

In view of the fact that doing as I suggest would not give rise to a major administrative burden because the register is digital in nature and there would be no need to open additional registration offices, I hope the Minister will accept amendment No. 3 and allow the names of the ports to which I refer to be added to the list contained in the Bill. That would be better than what is going to happen when the Bill is passed whereby people will make representations to try to have ports added to the list when they become of the fact that this is a possibility. The latter will lead to a continual and piecemeal process of representations being made to have ports added. The Minister may also be pressured into adding certain ports but not others. I am of the view, therefore, that the amendment would be of assistance in streamlining the entire administrative process.

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