Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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Question 422: To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport the reason he has not given approval to the man overboard guardian system which was launched in December 2007. [16380/11]

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 practice and deal with and all aspects of fishing vessel safety. Specifically, it requires all fishing vessels to carry an Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacon (EPIRB) 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 (MoB) that an event has taken place, the Coast Guard will respond as if it has received an emergency 112 call. Tracking information from the Guardian MoB system will not be supplied directly to the Irish Coast Guard but will be relayed by the commercial provider directly to the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) Headquarters in the United Kingdom and onwards to the Irish Authorities. This is not considered the optimum approach in responding to an emergency situation here.

The Department has been engaged in discussions with the RNLI regarding their Guardian MoB system. This system was developed by the RNLI and two commercial companies, McMurdo and AWS. Internationally, concerns have been expressed about such MoB systems as there is no recognised standard for them to comply with. Without recognised standards the Department is unable to approve any such systems nor can it recommend any one supplier over another. In accordance with International recommendations the Department has issued a Marine Notice No. 33 of 2010 - Commercially Available Locating, Tracking and Emergency Notification Devices - advising of the issues associated with such systems.

The Department has no objection in principle to the voluntary carriage of non-statutory equipment like the Guardian MoB system so long as fishing vessels carry all of the legally required statutory equipment and that the voluntary carriage of non-statutory equipment does not interfere with the safety of vessels.