Jack Wall (Kildare South, Labour)
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Question 118: To ask the Minister for Transport if he will report on developments on the Irish Shipping register and the Irish Maritime Development Office during 2005; the number of ships that were registered under the Irish flag in January 2005 and the number of ships registered under the Irish flag; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [3133/06]

Martin Cullen (Waterford, Fianna Fail)
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With regard to the Irish ship register, the maritime safety directorate of my Department is at present reviewing Ireland's policy on the registration of vessels on the Irish flag.

In September 2005, a consultation paper was published by the directorate, which outlined the current position in relation to ship registration in Ireland, and invited submissions from interested parties in relation to the issues raised in the paper. The consultation process ended on 16 December 2005, and work is now progressing on developing proposals for the modernisation of Irish ship registration legislation.

Based on the information supplied to my Department by the registrars of ships at the 13 ports of registry around the coast, on 1 January 2005 there were 58 merchant ships on the register and on 31 December 2005 there were 52 merchant ships.

The Irish Maritime Development Office, IMDO, is the development and promotional agency for the shipping and shipping services sector and is based in the Marine Institute. Late last year, the IMDO was asked to carry out a thorough evaluation of the results of existing strategies to promote the Irish maritime sector, including the successes achieved to date and the issues to be addressed going forward. Terms of reference are currently being formalised in consultation with my Department and the IMDO hopes to complete the requested evaluation later this year.