Martin Kenny (Sligo-Leitrim, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

More than 400 people who have been trained by the National Maritime College of Ireland over the past year or so now find that they are not being certified. If this situation is not resolved, all of these people will be out of work from 1 January 2017. They will be unable to take up positions in Ireland or anywhere else in the world. It is intolerable that these people cannot be employed on any vessel anywhere until they get this certification in place. There seems to be some kind of stand-off between the Marine Survey Office, which is part of the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport, and the National Maritime College of Ireland. We need to get this resolved as quickly as possible. Many of these people cannot go anywhere else in the world to get these courses. They took these courses in good faith and expected that everything would be all right. It is intolerable that they have been left out in the cold in this manner. I implore the Minister to sort out this problem as a matter of urgency. It needs to be done immediately in order that people can be reassured. No one is aware of any reason this situation has not been resolved up to now.

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