Under Irish and international law, all vessels trading into and out of Irish ports are required to carry appropriate certification to demonstrate compliance with the requisite conventions and regulations applicable to ships of their type and size. All vessels are subject to surveys and inspections initially by their flag states and, in addition, they are liable to inspection every six months under the port state control system if they visit any of the countries party to that system.
For the purposes of port state control, the number of individual foreign vessels visiting Irish ports in 2001 was 1,330. A total of 281 such vessels were inspected by my Department's surveyors under the port state control system in 2001 and 17 of these vessels were detained for non-compliance with the requisite international marine safety conventions.
Concerns have been expressed about the treatment of crews on vessels operating under flags of convenience. All merchant vessels of any significant size must be registered. There are over 140 ship registers in operation world-wide. Ship registers impose obligations on ship owners regarding maintenance, crewing standards and certification of those matters by the flag state or inspection bodies duly authorised by the flag state. While there is a perception that the use of "flags of convenience" facilitates more lenient regulatory requirements the practice is nevertheless still permissible under international law.
