Vol. 182 No. 10
asked the Minister for Transport and Power if he has caused southern beaches and coastal areas to be examined by inspectors of his Department with a view to ascertaining the extent and nature of pollution by oily substances occurring in such areas, and discovering if such pollution is of a nature which could have been caused by small tankers entering Cork harbour discharging their ballast in territorial waters.
12.
asked the Minister for Transport and Power (a) the number of small tankers entering Cork harbour for the purpose of loading cargoes at the Whitegate refinery since 1st January, 1960, (b) the nature of the ballast carried by each tanker, (c) the number of such tankers that availed themselves of the facilities for discharging ballast provided by the Whitegate refinery, (d) the number that discharged ballast elsewhere and (e) if the ballast of such tankers contained oily substances.
13.
asked the Minister for Transport and Power (a) the nature and extent of the supervision of small tankers entering Cork harbour in ballast for the purpose of loading at Whitegate refinery which is carried out by the harbour master of Cork, (b) the number of such tankers boarded and inspected by or on behalf of the harbour master, (c) the number of ship records required to be produced to the harbour master and (d) whether each such record showed where and when the ballast of the tanker was discharged.
14.
asked the Minister for Transport and Power if he has made or intends to make regulations requiring ships registered in the State to be so fitted and to comply with such requirements as to prevent or reduce the discharge of oil or oily mixtures into the sea; and whether small tankers owned or chartered by oil companies carrying the finished products of Whitegate oil refinery to Irish ports are so fitted and comply with any requirements calculated to prevent the discharge of oil or oily mixtures in territorial waters off the south coast.
15.
asked the Minister for Transport and Power the powers and right of investigation and inquiry available to him under the Oil Pollution of the Sea Act, 1956, in respect of allegations that the increased pollution of southern coastal waters experienced this year is due to discharge of ballast by small tankers entering Cork harbour bound for Whitegate refinery; whether he has availed himself of such powers and rights; and, if so, if he will give a detailed account of the outcome of such inquiries.
With the permission of the Ceann Comhairle, I propose to take Questions Nos. 11-15 together.
As I have already told the Deputy in reply to a previous question, I have been informed by the Cork Harbour Commissioners that they are satisfied that tankers are making full use of the facilities provided by the refinery and are not discharging oil into the Harbour. The Harbour Commissioners are the responsible public authority on whom the duty of preventing oil pollution in their harbour primarily devolves and I have no grounds for not accepting their assurances. I am in any case advised that pollution of the kind which has been reported could not be caused by the small tankers carrying refined oils from the refinery, but is due to the discharge of crude oil on the high seas. In these circumstances I have not considered it necessary to direct that any special investigation should be carried out by my Department into the allegations made by the Deputy.
Detailed particulars about tankers visiting the refinery or of the precise steps taken by the Cork Harbour Master in discharge of his duties under the Oil Pollution of the Sea Act, 1956, are not recorded in my Department. It is open to the Deputy, if he wishes, to seek this information from the Harbour Commissioners.
The Oil Pollution of the Sea (Ships' Equipment) Regulations, 1957, require that all oil fuelled Irish registered ships must be so fitted as to prevent oil fuel from leaking or draining from machinery spaces into bilges.
I have made arrangements for officers of my Department to examine and report on the extent of oil pollution of southern beaches but I very much doubt if the results will add anything to our information on the subject. The principal cause of oil pollution of this kind is the cleaning out of the crude oil tanks of oil tankers and the disposal of oily ballast water from such tanks on the high seas. The persistent oils so discharged may be carried by wind and tide for many hundreds of miles to pollute the beaches of this and other countries. The only entirely effective method of preventing oil pollution is the complete avoidance of the discharge of persistent oils into the sea. International agreement on such complete prohibition has not been possible and the International Convention applies only to discharges within certain zones and binds only those countries which are signatories to it. Many countries with substantial tanker fleets are not signatories to the Convention. Success in preventing or substantially reducing oil pollution depends ultimately on an increased measure of international co-operation. We are playing our part but there is nothing we can do to prevent pollution by the vessels of other states who are not parties to the International Convention.
Would the Minister not consider that he could bring pressure on these people, on the owners of tanker fleets who are not prepared to co-operate with other civilised countries? He could do that by drawing the attention of other countries whose fleet owners do comply and he could——
The Deputy is making a speech, not asking a question.
It is all in the form of a question.
It is not. It is giving information or making suggestions to the Minister.
Does the Minister not consider that we should not charter any tanker that has not complied with the international regulations?
That, certainly, is an argument.
Has the Minister any information which would suggest that contamination of the kind complained of in or about Cork is reproduced on the southern coast of Great Britain?
I have no information that there is any connection between pollution of one coast and another. We have done all we can to obtain agreement among the nations that have registered tankers and until we can get a substantial measure of agreement I believe this nuisance will continue.
If the people of Cork apprehend that there is a peculiar degree of pollution there arising from the proximate discharge of oily waste, would it not be prudent, if the Minister's officers believe that this contamination derives from the high seas, to make some inquiries with a view to determining whether similar pollution is occurring on the Cornish or Devon coasts where I suppose one would expect it to occur, if it derived mainly from the high seas?
There is no international machinery of that kind but I am considering, when we have these reports, seeing what we can do to inform other nations who are signatories so that the information gathered from them might give some further clue to the origin of this nuisance.
Ad interim a postcard to the British Ambassador would suffice to elicit the information.
Or read any English newspaper.
That, after all, will console the people of Cork.
