Vol. 436 No. 6
46 Mr. Cullen asked the Minister for the Marine the amount of grant aid that has been given to a company (details supplied) over the past ten years; and whether any concessionary tax rates apply in respect of the ships which were grant aided.
67 Mr. Cox asked the Minister for the Marine if, in respect of an Irish registered ship (details supplied) the building of this ship benefited from any public assistance in the form of grant aid, or tax incentive schemes; and whether there is any requirement to hire even a minimum number of Irish crew members, in the event of such schemes being availed of by shipping companies.
I propose taking Paralimentary Questions Nos. 46 and 67 together.
The company in question received grant aid on one occasion during the last ten years. Under the Shipping Investment Grants Act, 1987, the Company was awarded grant-aid in 1990 totalling £250,000, towards the construction costs of one 4,000 dwt bitumen carrier involving a total investment of some £7.5 million and which was built in 1990. No concessionary tax rates apply to grant-aided ships as such. However, all Irish shipping companies uniformly benefit from a preferential corporation tax rate of 10 per cent.
All Irish-registered ships, grant-aided or otherwise, are required to comply with manning and safety requirements laid down in regulations made under the Merchant Shipping Act, 1894-92. Manning regulations stipulate that deck and engineer officers on Irish registered ships must hold certificates of compentency issued by the Irish authorities or alternatively certificates of compentancy from countries with whom the State has reciprocal recognition arrangements, currently the UK and a number of former Commonwealth countries. Ratings of all nationalities can serve on Irish registered vessels provided they hold recognised qualifications as seamen.
