Vol. 414 No. 4
2 Mr. G. O'Sullivan asked the Minister for the Marine if he has any plans to change the present system of declaring ships' manifests, having regard to the serious public concern regarding events surrounding the collision of the m.v. Kilkenny; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
The ship's manifest is basically an inventory of the goods on board a merchant vessel. In the case of the m.v. Kilkenny's last voyage this computerised document would have been produced following input by an employee of the B & I line in Rotterdam. Copies of the document would have been transmitted to B & I line in Dublin and given to the Customs and Excise service and the Dublin Port and Docks Board. In the normal course of events, a copy of a ship's minifest would not be sent to me or to my Department. When a ship arrives in port it reports to the Customs and Excise service and the manifest is the document used for this purpose. Customs and Excise have a general role in checking all contents in accordance with the provisions of the Customs Consolidation Acts, and the Misues of Drugs Act and Regulations.
The port authority, and in particular the fire officer, check vessels which are carrying goods as notified to the port under the International Maritime Dangerous Goods — IMDG — code. Specialist staff from my Department are also involved in this regard.
Regarding the carriage of dangerous goods by sea, I have outlined the position to the House in response to Private Notice Questions on 26 November, just a forthnight ago. The position is that the carriage of dangerous goods by sea is governed by the International Maritime Dangerous Goods code. This is an international guide prepared by the International Maritime Organisation for use as the basis for national legislation in pursuance of obligations under Chapter VII of the Safety of Life at Sea Convention — SOLAS. Ireland implemented the provisions of SOLAS relating to the carriage of dangerous goods by the Merchant Shipping (Dangerous Goods) Rules, 1983. These rules forbid the taking on board of dangerous goods for carriage in that ship unless the shipper of the goods has furnished the shipowner or master with a dangerous goods declaration. Such declaration shall indicate, with the correct technical name, the identity of the goods and the United Nations number. The rules furthermore require the master of a ship to carry a specific list, manifest or stowage plan on board, setting forth, in accordance with the information provided by the shipper, details of the dangerous goods carried.
The difficulty which arose in this case was that a container of groupage cargo consigned to several consignees in Ireland was misdescribed on the original manifest produced by B & I Rotterdam as cartons of furniture. This was attributed to simple human error. In the immediate aftermath of the collision this error was spotted by B & I officials.
I am awaiting the outcome of the inquiry into the causes of this accident and if it indicates a need for any review of procedures regarding the carriage of dangerous goods by sea, I will arrange for this to be undertaken. In the meantime, while I do not wish to prejudge the outcome of his investigation, the question of the carriage of dangerous goods by sea has been raised at a meeting held since the collision between officials of my Department and the Irish Port Authorities Association. The whole question will be kept under review pending the outcome of the statutory investigation under the Merchant Shipping Acts. I will be raising this matter at the EC Transport Council meeting in Brussels on Tuesday, 17 December.
I thank the Minister for his rather comprehensive reply. Would he not agree that the system in operation is open to abuse? In this instance we have had drugs and toxic chemicals washed up on the foreshore and even an arms find in Dublin Bay. Would the Minister not envisage introducing some precautionary measure whereby cargo coming into this country in containers is checked not by spot check but in a more thorough way? Would the Minister agree that the present system is totally inadequate for container traffic?
Drugs and arms were discovered off Sandycove. However, as of now, there is no information as to where they came from. The thinking at the moment is that they did not come from the m. v. Kilkenny.
In regard to what the Deputy said about checks, I outlined the checks that are in place as of now. I agree it is very difficult to search every corner of every unit in, say ro-ro ships. Customs and Excise is the responsibility of another Minister but we are using what powers we have at the moment to the fullest extent. I see some difficulties when the Customs and Excise scene changes as a result of what is happening in Maastricht at the moment. It is for that reason that I intend to raise it next week at the Council meeting to see if something can be done at international level about tighter controls both with regard to dangerous substances and drugs.
I have one further supplementary question.
Let us have regard to the time factor in dealing with priority questions.
The Minister's reply was fairly comprehensive.
There are three remaining questions. I do not see how we can include them.
Would the Minister not agree that we rely totally on the honesty of the shipping agents as distinct from the precautionary measures taken by the port staff in this country? We rely totally on the manifest the agent declares.
I would not agree that we rely totally on the agents' honesty but we rely substantially on it. There are checks by the Customs people and other port authoriies.
