I move that the Bill be now read a Second Time.
The House is aware that this Bill has already been passed by the Seanad in which it was introduced. The purpose of the Bill is to enable Ireland to implement the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea, 1960. This Convention was adopted by an international conference of maritime States, including Ireland, convened under the auspices of the Inter-Governmental Maritime Consultative Organisation (more commonly known, from its initials, as IMCO).
As Deputies will have observed, the Bill is a rather technical one. Nevertheless, it deals with a subject which is of the greatest importance, not only to ships' crews and officers, but to all of us who have occasion, at one time or another, to travel by sea. The background history leading to the most recent Convention is as follows:
Various enactments regulating merchant shipping, including the safety of life at sea, were passed in the second half of the last century. These culminated in the comprehensive Merchant Shipping Act of 1894, which codified and extended the scope of the law relating to shipping. This Act enabled the prevention of unseaworthy or undermanned ships from putting to sea, and provided for the survey of ships, the carriage of lifeboats etc., the prevention of collisions by adherence to standard rules of navigation, the holding of enquiries into shipping casualties and the suspension or cancellation of the certificates of ships' officers found to have been negligent.
The first important International Convention was signed in January, 1914. However, the implementation of this Convention was held up, indefinitely as it turned out, by the outbreak of war.
The 1929 Convention was modelled on that of 1914 but was of considerably wider scope and more detailed in character. It applied in the main only to passenger ships engaged on international voyages. Such ships were required to possess a general safety certificate, to be issued annually upon confirmation by survey that the ships complied with construction, fire prevention, life-saving and wireless telegraphy requirements; cargo ships of 1,600 tons gross and over were also required to carry certificates to show that they complied with the wireless telegraphy requirements. The Convention was implemented in Ireland by the Merchant Shipping (Safety and Load Line Conventions) Act, 1933.
In 1948 another international conference was convened, which drew up a new Safety Convention. The principal advance made on this occasion was the extension of certain requirements to cargo ships. For the first time there was international agreement that cargo ships of 500 tons gross and upwards should be required to carry life-saving appliances. The range of life-saving equipment to be carried by passenger and cargo vessels was extended, varying with the size of ship. Lifeboats were required to have fixed or portable radio equipment, and ships were required to have mechanical davits for launching the lifeboats. With regard to radio, all passenger ships, and cargo ships of 1,600 tons and upwards, were required to maintain a continuous watch on the distress radio frequency either by qualified radio officers or by automatic equipment. The requirement to carry radio was extended down from cargo ships of 1,600 tons to cargo ships of 500 tons. Whereas formerly only passenger ships of 5,000 tons were obliged to have a direction-finder, all ships, passenger and cargo, of 1,600 tons and over were henceforth required to have this equipment. Most of the Convention's provisions were applicable not only to ships of the ratifying country but to foreign ships while within that country's ports.
The 1948 Convention was given effect in Ireland by the Merchant Shipping (Safety Convention) Act, 1952, and by a series of statutory rules made under the Act in 1953.
In 1960 a further international conference was held under the auspices of the Inter-Governmental Maritime Consultative Organisation to revise the 1948 Convention. IMCO, which is a specialised agency of the United Nations, came into being subsequent to 1948. The Convention adopted by the conference in general covered the same ground as the 1948 Convention but once again was more detailed than its predecessor, and prescribed higher standards. A notable advance was that for the first time in the history of the shipping industry it has been agreed at an international level that the hull, equipment and machinery of cargo ships of 500 tons gross and over engaged in international trade should be surveyed periodically to ensure that the various components are adequate for the service for which the ships are intended. Other advances, though not spectacular, are the requirements regarding the carriage of radio apparatus on cargo ships of between 300 and 500 tons gross, the carriage of inflatable life-rafts, and more stringent requirements regarding the sub-division of some types of passenger ship, stability, watertight integrity, safety of electrical installations, and fire control.
The 1960 Convention came into force internationally in May, 1965, when it had been accepted by the required number of 15 countries, including 7 countries each with at least a million tons gross of shipping. Up to the present date the Convention has been accepted by 46 countries of the 55 in all which were represented at the 1960 Conference. Acceptor countries include Britain, France, the Netherlands, West Germany and the United States.
The present Bill has been drawn up with the object of enabling Ireland to implement the Convention. The main provisions of the Bill convey the necessary powers for the making of rules prescribing requirements regarding the construction and periodical survey of the hull, equipment and machinery of specified Irish registered cargo ships; the issue of the appropriate certificates to such ships which comply with the rules; and the application of the rules to foreign ships which are in a port in the State unless they hold appropriate certificates from their own Governments. It gives power to appoint bodies such as Lloyd's Register and Bureau Veritas who would be authorised to survey the ships concerned, in accordance with the rules, and to issue the appropriate certificates in the same way as if the vessels had been surveyed by my Department's nautical survey staff. It requires the owner or master of a ship for which a certificate has been issued to notify the issuing authority of any alteration to the hull, equipment or machinery of the ship, and it prohibits Irish ships from proceeding to sea unless they hold the appropriate certificates. Power is also taken to fix, with the consent of the Minister for Finance, fees for the survey of cargo ships for construction certificates. Provision is made for the retention of the fees by any outside body, such as those I mentioned a moment ago, who may be authorised to carry out the survey.
The Bill, as Deputies will note, is primarily an enabling measure. The actual process of giving statutory effect to the detailed technical requirements of the Convention is due to take place later, through technical Rules to be made by me in virtue of powers contained in the Act of 1952 and in this Bill. These Rules will take the form of statutory instruments, and I hope that they will be made within the course of the next few months. The Rules will be laid before the Dáil and Seanad in the customary manner.
I confidently recommend the Bill for the approval of the Dáil.
