I am proud to share my time with both Deputies because Deputy Coveney represents a coastal area and has a great interest in seafaring and Deputy Deasy, to whom I have spoken many times on these issues, comes from another coastal community and also has a tremendous interest in the sea.
Because of the growth in international tourism, there is a growing trend towards activity-related holidays, but the water-based tourism market in Ireland remains underdeveloped. Until recently the Department of the Marine and Natural Resources was not active in the area of water-based tourism which did not slot into the normal work of the Department.
The Marine Institute produced a strategy document in 1998 which highlighted a significant role for water-based tourism and leisure. It has the potential to create jobs in many areas that are economically disadvantaged, some of which are peripheral parts of our country. The whole water-based tourism and leisure business makes a sig nificant contribution to our economy. It has an estimated value of £392 million per annum and supports in excess of 14,500 employees. It includes adventure centres as a smaller component of the water-based tourism and leisure business. We are fortunate to have 2,000 miles of coastline and also an extensive lake network with great potential for water-based activities associated with adventure centres. We are also fortunate that the inland waters and the coastline are accessible to our major population centres.
Marine pollution is mainly confined to the coastlines close to our major cities. Most of our coastline remains unpolluted and is ideal for water-based activities. The uncrowded nature of most of our coastline makes it popular with tourists. If funding were provided by local authorities or by the Department for the many ports, inlets and small harbours which are falling into disrepair, it would greatly enhance the profile of our marine, tourism and leisure activities.
The Marine Institute, in a strategy document which embraced tourism and leisure, recognised that user friendly legislation regulating commercial activities in the water-based leisure sector, especially with regard to safety, is needed. In introducing this Bill, I am conforming to the necessity for a Bill for water-based activity centres for people under 18 years of age. I am pleased to introduce this Bill as a voluntary code is not sufficient to protect young people engaged in water sports at marine adventure centres. It is essential that such centres be licensed and their activities supervised by officials from the Health and Safety Authority. This Bill proposes a new licensing and policing system under the aegis of the Health and Safety Authority.
Over the years, with the growth in the tourism industry, there has been a dramatic expansion in the number of outdoor pursuit centres engaged in adventure sports. These adventure centres engage in such diverse activities as canoeing, sailing, wind-surfing, mountain hiking, pony trekking, field studies, archery, orienteering, hill-walking, power boating, rock climbing snorkelling, abseiling sea kayaking and surfing. The location of the adventure centres, whether on the coastline or inland, will dictate the different activities carried on in these locations. The adventure centres cater for all age groups but are most popular with young children and young adults.
In their advertising the centres specify the age group for which they cater, with young children from seven years and upwards attending them. When looking at some Bord Fáilte literature it surprised me to find that one centre was accepting even younger children from the age of three and upwards. Many of them cater for children from the age of seven and upwards and many cater for all ages. In marketing these centres abroad, Bord Fáilte states:
Adventure sports are by their nature hazardous and participants should be aware that no liability will attach to outdoor pursuits centres in respect of accidents caused by or resulting from their inexperience or negligence. They participate at their own risk and are advised to carry their own personal accident insurance policy.
In response to that, let me remind the House that we are talking about young children of six, seven, eight or nine years old. Parents need the comfort of knowing that if they send a young child to an adventure centre it is licensed and there is a proper policing system in place.
Currently, the Association for Adventure Sports, AFAS, does a good job in setting standards for adventure centres relating to safety, safety procedures, safety of equipment and qualification of staff, and issues an annual list of approved centres. The Department of Tourism, Sport and Recreation provides limited funding on an annual basis. I emphasise the very limited funding for this body which operates this code very much on a voluntary basis. The organisations included under the umbrella of AFAS include: the Irish Amateur Archery Association, responsible for archery; the Irish Canoe Union, responsible for canoeing, kayaking and canoe surfing; the Speleological Union of Ireland, responsible for caving; the Mountaineering Council of Ireland, responsible for hill-walking, mountaineering and rock climbing; the Irish Orienteering Association, responsible for orienteering; and the Irish Surfing Association, responsible for surfing.
I have no doubt that if the Minister accepts this Bill, the Association for Adventure Sports will still have a strong role in the area of adventure sports and the Bill will strengthen its role. I am not saying that under this Bill the Association for Adventure Sports standards should be abolished. All I am saying is that if it operates on a voluntary basis, it would help to know that the strength of a Bill like this is behind it in the operation of its code of conduct.
Over the years it has been the Department's policy that self-regulation by individuals engaged in water sports and the representative organisations is the most practical and efficient approach to the safety of such activities. Successive Ministers for the Marine have supported self-regulation. However, interestingly, in a reply in the Dáil on 27 May 1998 the Minister for the Marine and Natural Resources, Deputy Woods, stated that following the tragic accident off Dunmore East in February 1995, which resulted in the death of two young men who were members of a canoeing party from the local adventure centre, his Department, while recognising that self-regulation remained an important option, had come to the conclusion that some form of regulation of adventure centres would be desirable to provide for an improvement in the safety of people availing of the activities at these centres. Ten months ago the Minister appeared to be very supportive, and in dealing with questions in committee I got the feeling he was interested in strengthening the existing situation. Now is the time for positive action. He further stated:
I have recently taken up with my colleague, the Minister for Tourism, Sport and Recreation, who is responsible for sport in general, the possible introduction of mandatory regulation of the safety of adventure centres.
It is now ten months since the Minister made that statement. Within the Bill I have framed, the Minister has the opportunity to accept it as being suitable for outdoor activity centres engaged in water sports. It could also be extended to all activity centres in due course. In framing the Bill, I was conscious that many outdoor adventure centres are not commercial operations, as such, but are under the jurisdiction of the vocational education committees.
The present situation regarding adventure centres is fragmented as the Minister for Tourism, Sport and Recreation has no statutory responsibility for the majority of them which are private commercial operations. Many such operations on our coastline offer a range of potentially dangerous activities in potentially dangerous locations, and many of their clients are children. The Department of Education and Science, through the vocational education committees, also operates nine outdoor education centres. Other vocational education committees operating adventure centres are seeking recognition from the Department of Education and Science. I estimate there are about 30 adventure centres in all.
In December 1994 the owner of a leisure centre in Britain was sentenced to three years imprisonment and fined £60,000 after a fatal canoeing accident involving a party of school children in March 1993. Four teenagers died in that accident in Lyme Bay. In 1995 the British Government introduced a Bill to regulate activity centres. As this business has rapidly expanded in recent years, it is now timely for us to introduce similar legislation.
It is now possible to establish an adventure centre but one is dependent upon voluntary recognition by AFAS with regard to safety standards and procedures laid down for the operation of such a centre. It is also my understanding that it is not compulsory for a centre to be under the umbrella of AFAS.
I acknowledge the ongoing encouragement of the parent whose son lost his life in a canoeing accident at Dunmore East. I have discussed the matter with the father on many occasions. With regard to this Bill, he is particularly anxious that some form of regulation should be in place, under the control of the Minister and with the strength of the Health and Safety Authority, for the operation of these adventure centres. I hope the Bill will be accepted by the Government. If the Minister is not happy with the text it should be possible to amend it on Committee Stage. It is desirable to have such legislation in operation. Although it will provide little comfort at this stage for someone who has lost a child as a result of such an accident, it would provide comfort for parents whose children will use adventure centres in future. They will know that if their children go to an adventure centre it will be properly regulated by the Minister for the Marine and Natural Resources, be policed on an ongoing basis by the Health and Safety Authority and will receive a licence. If the legislation achieves that, it will strengthen the outdoor adventures centres and further legitimise them as far as parents are concerned. Such comfort already exists for children who attend the outdoor education centres operated under the aegis of vocational education committees which come under the Department of Education and Science. The Department will carry out an investigation if anything goes wrong. It is desirable to have such an organisation to fall back on and which has a share of strength and muscle.
In framing this Bill I hoped the Minister would take a step in the right direction in taking the matter under his umbrella. Many of the activities in such adventure centres, whether inland or on the coast, are water based. If necessary it will be possible to include all adventure centres under the legislation.
At present, coastal adventure centres would apparently be the responsibility of the Department of the Marine and Natural Resources, even though that Department will say it has no such responsibility. On the other hand the Department of Tourism, Sport and Recreation under the Minister, Deputy McDaid, will say that it has no responsibility for the matter, apart from AFAS for which the Minister provides funding. The matter needs to be tidied up between both Departments.
Section 4 provides for the Health and Safety Authority to issue licences on behalf of the Minister for the Marine and Natural Resources. Under this section, the authority would have discretion as to whether an application would be refused or granted. If an applicant is dissatisfied with the decision of the Health and Safety Authority he may appeal to the High Court upon receipt of a certificate outlining the reasons for the authority's decision.
Section 7 provides the Minister with the power to make regulations which will provide for the cases or circumstances in which persons providing facilities for adventure centres are required to hold a licence and to set safety requirements to be satisfied by any applicant to hold a licence.
Section 8 makes it an offence to contravene a provision of a regulation made under this Bill or to knowingly or recklessly give false information to the authority for the purpose of obtaining a licence.
I hope the Bill will be accepted by the Government. Parents who send their children to outdoor activity centres deserve to be assured by the State that adequate safety standards are in place. As the Minister with statutory responsibility for the marine sector, Deputy Woods has an obligation to provide these assurances by introducing safety standards on a statutory basis.
I hope the Minister of State, Deputy Byrne, who is from a coastal county, will recognise that it is essential to do something positive in this direction. I commend the Bill to the House and sincerely hope the Minister will accept it.