I propose to take Question No. 6 and Priority Question No. 30 together.
I have contacted the 14 harbour authorities which handle virtually all of the commercial traffic passing through harbours governed by the Harbours Act, 1946. Eight of these have standing orders governing their procedures.
I am not satisfied that those standing orders are adequate in all cases and I have decided that the best approach would be to make provision similar to section 12 (9) of the Harbours (Shannon Estuary Development Corporation) Bill, 1988, in a new harbours Bill, following review of the existing legislation which I hope to arrange as soon as possible.
In the meantime, I am asking harbour authorities to strengthen their standing orders to meet the situation.