Brendan Daly (Fianna Fail)

Apart from the prosecution of offenders, the issue was raised of the claiming of compensation where serious offences were committed. Very extensive expenses can arise in remedying the damage done by breaches of such conventions. As I mentioned previously, there is a grave doubt in my mind as to the efficiency and effectiveness of the convention, especially in cases where the State is left to pick up the cost involved in the contamination and cleaning up some of the side effects of the breaches and offences being created, especially by ships from outside the jurisdiction.

I raised the question of the clean-up of damage done by the Kowloon Bridge and the costs that the State incurred at the time in the removal of oil and securing of the wreck. That involved the State in enormous expense to be refunded under these conventions. As far as I know, the final payments to the State have not yet been made. That undermines the whole purpose of such legislation. There is an international convention under which people can claim damages, but those claims are left unattended for a long period. The last time we had similar legislation before us, I raised the question of the Kowloon Bridge compensation. The State still has not been refunded the expense that it incurred through that incident.

The second point, which was raised by several Senators last time, concerns nuclear vessels travelling close to the coastline, the risk of pollution involved, the difficulty and expense of controlling something of that sort if an accident took place and how that might be covered. Under this legislation, if one of those vessels got into difficulty close to a state constituting another jurisdiction, it would be very difficult to prosecute. I am not satisfied that the legislation is effective or efficient in dealing with those two matters: the prosecution of offences and the claiming back of compensation for damage done.