Michael Colreavy (Sligo-North Leitrim, Sinn Fein)
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Question 379: To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport if he will reconsider his decision on the RNLI man overboard guardian system and assist vessels and individual crew members to receive alerts. [12609/11]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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The Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport has implemented, in consultation with the fishing industry, a comprehensive safety regime for all fishing vessels. The safety standards applied are in line with International good practice. Specifically, the regime requires all fishing vessels to carry an Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacon in compliance with International standards, in order to notify the Coast Guard of a distress situation and activate an emergency response.

Should a notification be received from a commercial supplier of a "man overboard" system that an event has taken place, the Coast Guard will of course respond. However, I understand that information from the RNLI's "man overboard" Guardian system will not be supplied directly to the Irish Coast Guard but will instead be relayed by the commercial provider directly to the RNLI Headquarters in the UK and then forwarded to the Irish Authorities. Such an indirect emergency communications link is not considered optimal.

The Department has had discussions with the RNLI regarding their "man overboard" system, which they developed in conjunction with two commercial providers. Internationally, concerns have been expressed about such systems as there is no recognised standard. In accordance with international recommendations, the Department has issued a Marine Notice advising of the issues associated with such systems. The Department is unable to approve any such systems in the absence of a recognised standard, nor can the Department recommend any one supplier over another. The Department has no objection in principle to the voluntary carriage of such equipment so long as fishing vessels carry all of the legally required statutory equipment and the safety of vessels is not compromised.