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

With regard to the Minister's response to the amendment, I acknowledge he said he is not seeking to change the number of ports. I would probably add the word “yet” based on having heard what he said. However, even the Minister’s argument against accepting this amendment makes the case for me. There are 13 ports of registry listed in Schedule 3 to the Bill. The Minister is claiming he does not want to extend the number because there could be pressure to create additional offices of registry. There are 13 ports in the Schedule and only 11 offices of registry around the country. Therefore, there is not a requirement to have an office of registry for a port that has the right to register vessels.

There is no administrative burden associated with increasing the number of ports and facilitating fishing and shipping people to have their home ports recognised as ports of registry. My proposal is simple in terms of the single register providing a registration code or other arrangement for a particular port. There is no requirement on the Minister to have additional offices. What the Minister will do if he proceeds as intended is create an administrative burden in respect of dealing with representations from ports seeking to be added to the register. An issue will arise as to whether the Minister should draft regulations to increase the number at some point in the future. We could actually do this here today without placing any additional administrative burden on the Department or Minister.

No additional offices are required to increase the number on the list. At some point in the future, the Minister will probably seek to rationalise the number of offices, but this will not affect the registration of the ports. Therefore, the Minister can address this very easily today. Doing so would reduce the number of representations he will receive on this.

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