Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

One of the fundamental gaps in the existing ship registration legislation, which I hope to address in the Bill, is that there is no provision for ship registration renewal. The absence of a requirement to renew ship registration has led to a situation in which ships remain registered on the existing register books even though they have ceased to exist. They stay on the register forever. To address this, the Bill introduces the concept of ship registration renewal, along with a facility to refuse registration and a facility to remove ships from the register, all with the goal of improving the quality and accuracy of the new Irish register of ships.

Section 9(9) of the Bill provides that ship registration on the new register will be granted for an initial period of up to five years and may be subject to compliance with standards or conditions of registration as provided for in section 18(10). After this initial period of registration, and subject to satisfactory completion of the registration renewal process in accordance with section 19 of the Bill, a ship registration may be renewed for further periods of up to ten years in duration. A decision to have an initial registration period of five years rather than ten years in all cases was taken having regard to the transitional provisions that will apply to Irish ships registered on the existing register books under the 1955 Act, as provided for in section 14 of the Bill.

The effect of the amendment proposed by Senator Barrett is to replace the requirement to renew registration after specific time periods with a provision that would only require registration renewal when a ship is being transferred to new ownership. Instead of renewal every five years, the ship would only be renewed on transfer to new ownership. My concern is that the proposed amendment would remove the clear and unambiguous requirement to renew ship registration, involving an interaction with my Department, at specified times after initial registration and therefore would weaken the capacity to ensure the register was accurate and up to date. We want to require people to re-register every five years so that they have some engagement with the Department and so that the register is up to date. We do not want to have a situation similar to the one we have with vehicles, in which cars are often not taken off the file and remain on the file long after they have ceased to exist.

Another concern is that vessels can change ownership regularly. Some vessels may not change ownership for years but, equally, other vessels may change ownership a number of times, possibly even within the same year. A requirement to renew registration in such circumstances would be onerous for shipowners and my Department. Although the Senator's intention is the opposite, there is a risk that people would have to register their vessels more frequently than every five years.

Registration on the Irish register of ships will be subject to compliance with relevant standards or conditions, or both, of registration. The requirement to renew registration will afford the Department the opportunity to confirm that a ship is meeting the particular registration or safety requirements that may apply to the category of ship involved, or the part of the register on which the ship is registered. These provisions are all proposed in the interest of ensuring a high-quality register and ship registration regime that not only appears as such but also has in-built safeguards to ensure, in so far as possible, that the information contained on the register is accurate and that relevant safety requirements applying to ships are being complied with.

In circumstances in which no changes have been made to a ship, it is not envisaged that ship registration renewal process will be onerous. I support the concept of periodic time-defined ship registration renewal and, for the reasons stated, propose to retain the timeframes for ship registration renewal as outlined in the Bill. Accordingly, I do not propose to accept the amendments proposed by Senator Barrett. In the interest of aiding an accurate register and equality of treatment of all ship owners registering a ship on the register, I request the Senator to withdraw the proposed amendments.