I move: "That the Bill be now read a Second Time".
In June 1990 the Government authorised the Minister for Foreign Affairs to arrange for signature, subject to ratification, of the International Convention on Salvage, 1989. This required that new domestic legislation be enacted to give effect to the Convention. This offered an ideal opportunity to carry out a thoroughgoing review of existing legislation in respect of salvage and wreck and to address in particular the question of the removal of wrecks which constitute an obstruction to navigation or a blight on the environment. It was also decided to avail of the opportunity to strengthen and formalise the powers and duties of persons authorised to take charge of attempts to rescue vessels in distress.
Marine casualties in Community waters in recent years, culminating in the Braer incident last January, provided the impetus for the European Community to identify and act on measures to minimise the risk of further such catastrophies and resultant ecological damage. The Commission document A Common Policy on Safe Seas lays down the policy objectives for the elimination of substandard vessels, operators and crew from Community waters. A number of measures were targeted for priority action when the Council of Transport Ministers endorsed these objectives last June. In this regard I wish to express my appreciation of the input made by the Minister of State, Deputy Gerry O'Sullivan, to these measures. He made a very important contribution.
The priority measures include: (1) the setting up of a ship traffic control system at Community and national level; (2) the creation of environmentally-sensitive areas from which high-risk shipping must be excluded; (3) the need for shipowners to contribute to the costs of management, prevention and intervention where accidents occur; (4) more intensive port state control inspections of foreign ships entering Community ports; (5) comprehensive reporting systems for ships carrying dangerous or polluting goods into or out of Community ports as well as transiting along European coasts. Each of these measures is important in protecting our coastline. Ireland is actively involved in the Community work programmes to translate these measures as quickly as possible into concrete action.
I welcome this Community action to minimise the risks of marine pollution and to improve safety. Ireland must, however, be ready and equipped to deal with maritime casualties and pollution incidents which can and inevitably will continue to occur. We have already taken steps to improve our capability in this regard. Slanu, the Irish Marine Emergency Service, was established by the Government as a division of the Department in May 1991 in line with the recommendations of the Review Group on Air-Sea Rescue Services. IMES is responsible for the operational control and co-ordiantion aspects of all types of marine emergency response, including search and rescue, sea and coastal pollution, shipwreck and casualty response.
IMES is equipped with state of the art communications and computer equipment to enable it to respond immediately to the needs of seafarers in distress. The provision earlier this year of a new headquarters for IMES has considerably enhanced the support provided to our search and rescue and pollution prevention and response facilities. IMES has its own Sikorsky helicopter based at Shannon on a 24 hour basis. Since its acquisition the helicopter service has been responsible for the saving of 197 lives.
The establishment of IMES reflects the Government's commitment to provide the necessary resources to ensure, in so far as it is possible, the safety of life at sea. The creation of IMES is a major achievement of which we should be proud and puts our service on a par with the best in other European maritime jurisdictions.
I would like to take this opportunity to pay warm tribute to those other agencies which do such marvellous work in the area of search and rescue such as the Air Corps, the Naval Service, the Garda, the Royal National Lifeboat Institution, the National Safety Council and the many voluntary inshore lifeboat organisations. I would like also to express my gratitude to the many organisations who make their officials available to IMES to serve as members of the Marine Emergency Advisory Group, the Irish Marine Search and Rescue Committee and the Marine Pollution Response Team. Their work with IMES is very much appreciated and not taken for granted.
Against this background the Bill provides a new statutory framework for dealing with marine emergencies and their aftermath. Marine casualties can have three phases: a ship can be in danger or distress due to a technical failure or heavy weather; the ship is subsequently wrecked, abandoned or stranded; and the ensuing wreck may pose a threat to navigation, public health or the environment. The Bill fundamentally strengthens the powers of relevant authorities in each of these situations.
A number of the provisions in this Bill are designed to enable IMES to discharge its functions even more effectively. Part II enables the Minister for the Marine to appoint authorised officers, who will normally be drawn from IMES, to save lives and to assist vessels in distress. The Bill assigns to authorised officers a number of important new powers to enable them to discharge their functions effectively in the course of rescue operations. The authorised officer is given a general power to take such steps as he thinks fit to save the lives of persons on board the vessel at risk, the vessel itself and its cargo. The generality of the powers proposed will ensure flexibility and prompt response in order to deal with the specific circumstances of unpredictable emergencies as they arise.
An authorised officer may enlist assistance in the context of rescue efforts from any relevant persons. These include the master of the vessel in distress, the master of any other ship in the area, the crew of any vehicle or aircraft and any other person in the vicinity whom the authorised officer considers could be in a position to help. An authorised officer may demand the use of any vehicle, vessel or aircraft close by and which is suitably equipped for the rescue operation.
An authorised officer and others involved in the rescue operation will also be empowered to cross adjoining lands, should this be necessary, and a landowner is obliged to co-operate in this regard. Failure to comply with an authorised officer's requests in these matters is an offence under the Bill.
The Bill also permits an authorised officer to requisition all relevant information from anybody on board or any other person in relation to a vessel in distress. Such information includes, for example, details of the owner of the vessel, the master and crew, the cargo and its owner, the damage done, lives lost.
If the vessel in distress is located in a harbour the Bill provides for the harbour master to assume the functions of the authorised officer. The Bill also gives the Garda powers to search and detain persons suspected of plundering a vessel in distress or its cargo. I regret to say that experience has shown that unfortunately unscrupulous individuals may try to take advantage of an emergency by looting a stricken ship. The State must protect as far as possible shipowners and crew against such an eventuality.
This enhanced ability of the rescue services and other agencies to intervene will help to ensure that most incidents do not progress beyond the distress stage. In the event, however, that the vessel becomes stranded, abandoned or wrecked, a salvage operation may be attempted. The existing law on salvage — contained in the Merchant Shipping Act, 1894 — requires to be updated to ensure that salvage operations are encouraged and undertaken in a responsible manner. The Bill will, therefore, give effect in Irish law to the provisions of the International Convention on Salvage, concluded in London in 1989. This Convention prescribes the internationally accepted duties of shipowners, shipmasters and salvors during and after salvage operations. It also places on all concerned a clear responsibility to prevent or minimise damage to the environment. Criteria are also laid down for determining the amount of reward to be paid to salvors with a view to encouraging responsible and bona fide salvage operations.
Before going into more detail on this part of the Bill, I would like to address Deputies briefly on the underlying approach to salvage. Salvors have traditionally worked in a high-risk business, with large rewards for those who conclude successful salvage operations but nothing for those who fail. There is a great deal to be said for this approach as it would be unreasonable for an owner of a stranded vessel or its cargo to pay a salvor who fails to rescue any of the endangered property. However, the International Convention on Salvage makes one critically important change to the traditional principle of "no cure no pay".
Under existing law there is no incentive for a salvor to protect the environment when undertaking a salvage operation. The salvor's reward comes purely from saving the ship, crew and its cargo. Under the provisions of the Bill owners will be required to compensate salvors who have taken steps to minimise damage to the environment, even where the salvage operation itself has been unsuccessful. In view of the number of serious marine pollution incidents and threats to which Ireland has been exposed in the past and our increased awareness of the need to protect the marine environment this represents a timely and vital change in the law of salvage.
The Bill lays down the various duties owed by a salvor to the owners and masters of ships and, conversely, the duties of owners and masters to the salvor. It provides for the making of contracts to undertake salvage operations and lays down the criteria for deciding the amount of reward to be paid for the successful undertaking of a salvage operation. These criteria will also apply to compensation to be made for minimising or preventing damage to the environment. The duty to protect the environment is, therefore, placed centre stage under the provisions of the Bill.
In all maritime casualties the saving of the lives of the crew and others on board is the paramount concern. It is only when a rescue has been effected that salvage operations may commence. At that stage the vessel is usually stranded or wrecked. However, lest lives be still in danger, for whatever reason, when a salvage operation gets under way, the Bill provides that payment to the salvor by the owner for the saving of life will take priority over claims for payment in respect of property. While not specifically provided for in the International Salvage Convention, this is a principle in our law which, I am sure, Deputies agree must be retained. The Bill also reiterates the general duty of a master of a ship to come to the assistance of any person in danger of being lost at sea provided that, in doing so, he is not seriously endangering his own vessel, crew or passengers.
The Bill also addresses the question of salvage services rendered to or undertaken by State owned vessels; the criteria for fixing a salvage reward; the apportionment of rewards between salvors when two or more are involved in salvage operations; the need for co-operation between salvor, public authorities and other interested parties to ensure the successful performance of a salvage operation and the rights of salvors to payment.
Part IV of the Bill comprehensively addresses the question of wreck removal. The existing law on wreck, in the Merchant Shipping Act, 1894, is being updated, strengthened, improved and consolidated. Receivers of wreck appointed by the Minister for the Marine have usually been officers of the Customs and Excise Service. Other persons may also be so appointed where necessary. Receivers of wreck have undertaken a necessary and valuable function over many years in protecting the interests of owners and salvors of wrecks. I would like to take this opportunity to pay tribute to their work which does not often come to public notice. They carry out their work without fuss and often do not get credit for it. Under the Bill, receivers of wrecks will retain their function as "honest broker" between the owner and the salvor or finder of wreck.
The first duty of a receiver is to take possession of a "wreck" the ownership of which has not been established. The Bill provides that anybody, other than the owner, finding or recovering a wreck must deliver it into the possession of the receiver. The receiver must then give notice of taking possession of the wreck. with a view to establishing ownership and ultimately handing it over to its rightly owner, provided of course security for any salvage fees has been forthcoming from the said owner. In the event of an owner not being found, the Bill provides that the Director of the National Museum, on behalf of the State, may claim the wreck if it is of archaeological, historical or artistic merit. While the National Monuments Act, 1987, is the principal legislation covering the safeguard of wrecks of historic importance, I am proposing this provision to further strengthen our powers to protect our national heritage. In the event that the director is not so disposed, the receiver may sell the wreck.
New powers are also proposed for the Garda Síochána to deal with those who conceal or wrongfully take possession of a wreck. These powers tie in with the powers to be given to the gardaí to prevent looting of a vessel at the "vessel in distress" stage.
I am pleased that the Bill will firmly place the onus on the owner to remove the wreck if it constitutes a hindrance to navigation, a threat to coastal communities or the marine environment. As matters stand, wrecks can be and indeed have been abandoned by their owners over the years with impunity. We are all familiar with the phenomenon of unsightly wrecks around the coastline. I am sure this is a matter that Deputy Sheehan will address as he raised it at a committee recently.