Terence Flanagan (Dublin North East, Fine Gael)
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Question 10: To ask the Minister for Transport the number of passenger ships and boats certified by his Department for each year since 2000; the number of breaches, of such certificates for each year; the action taken and results of same; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [9707/08]

Noel Dempsey (Meath West, Fianna Fail)
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In answering this question I would like to draw a distinction between passenger boats and passenger ships.

A passenger boat is a vessel, which carries less than twelve passengers for hire or reward or which carries passengers to or from their place of work. All passenger boats are engaged on domestic voyages within the State either on inland lakes or rivers or to sea. Passenger boats are required to comply with Statutory Instrument No. 273 of 2002 Merchant Shipping (Passenger Boat) Regulations, which entered into force in June of 2002 and passenger boat certification/licensing was provided for on a regulated basis therein.

A passenger ship is a vessel, which carries more than twelve passengers. Passenger ships include both international and domestic passenger ships. There are no international passenger ships flying the Irish flag and all Irish passenger ships currently operate on domestic voyages both on inland waters and to sea. Passenger ships are required to comply with a very extensive body of merchant shipping legislation, which is being further developed by the Miscellaneous Provisions Bill, which will be published this year.

I am in a position to provide numbers of passenger boats and ships that were certified from 2000 to date.

In relation to the number of breaches of such certificates for each year, actions taken and the results of same I must point out that this is a complicated matter which involves the other enforcement agencies of the State in addition to the officers of my Department. These other organisations include amongst others An Garda Síochána and the Department of Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs who fund a number of the passenger ships under their PSO provision.

In general, Irish passenger ships and boats are operated to a high standard. However, all domestic passenger ships are subject to unannounced inspections by Surveyors from my Department during the year to ensure continued compliance with the requirements and that they are being operated safely. Enforcement actions can include the Surveyor issuing deficiency notices against the ship with set deadlines for rectification, more serious deficiencies may result in the detention of a ship and in some serious cases a prosecution may be taken against the skipper and/or owner of the vessel. Additionally, complaints may be received from members of the public and my officials follow-up on all of these and take additional action as necessary. For example in 2007 all of the domestic passenger ships were subject to the unannounced inspections, and one prosecution was taken for overloading of a passenger ship.

Should he so wish, I will have my officials contact the Deputy directly and they can explain the detail of the certification and enforcement regime and provide clarifications and further detail as required.