Brendan Daly (Fianna Fail)

Like Senator Finucane, I compliment the Minister for Communications, Marine and Natural Resources, the Minister of State and his staff on the way they have handled this issue and the representations they have made about it. However, I would like to be sure there is a mechanism to deal with an incident in which pollution is caused adjacent to our territorial seas. While I appreciate the legislation fully covers ships in harbours under the jurisdiction of the authorities within the State and probably within our territorial waters, what about the area outside this? It is important that this protocol is applied there and it is not clear to me whether it does.