David Norris (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I very much hope the Minister will be able to accept amendments Nos. 1c and 1g. I do not think there is any use having a canal if it is not navigable - it is just a blot on the landscape, a kind of weed-strewn expanse, and there is absolutely no point to it. The only point to the canals is if they are available for navigation and people can sail their boats through them. I would have thought that was pretty obvious and I do not see any reason the Minister should object to that. It seems to be a fundamental purpose of the Bill.

With regard to amendment No. 1f, it seems extraordinary that the Minister should introduce a Bill and then include a section that holds another Minister responsible. There is a sustainable argument that Minister for Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs has no business sticking her nose into fishing and that there should be a separate Bill on this subject. However, given this Bill has been introduced by this Minister, I do not understand why she is running away from responsibility for this. If she is taking responsibility for introducing this Bill, she should continue to have responsibility with regard to the provisions of the Bill.

Amendment No. 1h, which was dealt with very well by Senator Higgins, reads as follows:

In page 4, line 29, after “canals” to insert the following:

“subject to agreed criteria for safety standards aboard a vessel and adjudicated upon by a suitably qualified person”.

Again, I hope the Minister will be able to accept this. Without agreed safety standards, what is being implemented? We do not know what is being implemented. It has to be set down what the standards are. We know that every year, tragically, there are quite a few drowning accidents, mostly in the sea but some could well be in the canals. Therefore, we first need to know what are the standards that are being implemented. If we do not have these standards set down, then we do not what we are implementing and people are working in the dark. Those standards should then be adjudicated upon by a suitably qualified person. Again, it is obvious and logical that we should have somebody who has suitable qualifications. There is no point having unqualified people with no training in this area and who do not understand the circumstances. It seems absurd to allow a situation where there are no standards, we do not know what is being applied and the person applying it has no qualifications. Surely we need to establish very clearly what the standards of safety are, given this is a critical matter in terms of the welfare of citizens of Ireland. We then need have people who are actually qualified. I could not just walk on and say, "I think this is unsafe", because that would be rubbish. We need properly qualified personnel and they need to know what they are implementing. I cannot see any argument whatever against this.