Dessie Ellis (Dublin North West, Sinn Fein)
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Question 646: To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport his plans to review the operation of the State port inspection regime; the number of inspectors currently invigilating ships that use Irish waters or ports; the number of inspections which have taken place during each of the past five years; the number of prosecutions which have been brought for non-payment of wages and breaches of health and safety conditions during each of the past five years; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [9028/11]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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Port State Control inspections onboard foreign flagged ships in Irish ports are carried out under the auspices of the Paris Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on port state control and EU Directives. These inspections are carried out to check for compliance with International Law. A "New Inspection Regime" (NIR) for port state control commenced on 1 January 2011 and is based on 100% of ships being inspected in the Paris MoU area over a 3 year period.

The NIR is designed to reward quality shipping with longer periods between inspections, whilst penalising operators of poor quality ships with more frequent and more in depth inspections being required on such ships. The number of marine surveyors employed by my Department and who carry out a range of duties currently stands at 27. The Department's surveyors inspect over 400 foreign flagged ships per year and they detain any ship which poses a safety hazard or which does not comply with the international requirements on living and working arrangements.

The total number of inspections completed in each of the last five years was 440 in 2006, 410 in 2007, 434 in 2008, 420 in 2009 and 435 in 2010. With regard to prosecutions for non-payment of wages and breaches of health and safety conditions, the primary responsibility for the compliance with the law on board ships rests with the flag state in each case.

The payment of wages on foreign flagged ships is a matter for the flag state where the ship is registered and is a matter for the internal domestic law of that country. However, non-payment of wages is not in itself a basis for detention of a vessel by surveyors of my Department.