I move amendment No. 1:
In page 7, to delete lines 14 to 32 and substitute the following:
"29A.–The European Communities (Civil and Commercial Judgments) Regulations 2002 are hereby amended by the insertion of the following regulation after regulation 3–
‘3A.–(1) Paragraph (2) shall apply only to a judgment of a Member State in relation to the Supplementary Fund (within the meaning of the Oil Pollution of the Sea (Civil Liability and Compensation) Act 1988).
(2) The Brussels I Regulation and these Regulations apply in respect of a judgment of a Member State other than a court or tribunal of a territory of a Member State to which the Brussels I Regulation does not apply.'.".
On Committee Stage I asked the Minister for Communications, Marine and Natural Resources if he could indicate the number of international maritime safety conventions which had yet to be approved by the House. It seems to Opposition Members that the list is long. As the Ceann Comhairle will know, the Bill before us seeks to legislate for increased amounts of liability cover in respect of oil pollution but there are a number of other important conventions to which the Minister referred on Second Stage. These include the International Convention on Oil Pollution Preparedness, Response and Co-operation, the International Convention on the Control of Harmful Anti-Fouling Systems of Ships, the International Convention on Civil Liability for Bunker Oil Pollution Damage and, in particular, Annex 6 of the International Convention on the Prevention of Pollution from Ships, MARPOL 73/78. The Minister told the select committee that the conventions were incorporated in the Sea Pollution (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2003, of which this legislation was supposed to be a part.
While I understand the urgent need to meet the 1 November deadline, it seems the Minister is adopting a risky position by lethargically failing to legislate as soon as possible in respect of the conventions I have outlined. I hope he is not. It would probably have been better for the House if he had brought forward a full Bill during this session. What is the position on what appears to be a very long list of international conventions on marine safety and pollution which we have not yet ratified? They have a critical influence on our environment.
On Second Stage the Minister referred to the European Maritime Safety Agency which has just been established. While he is bringing proposals to Cabinet in relation to our arrangements in this area, is the agency something for which we will also have to legislate? This is a vast Department with a very important remit for crucial national resources both on land and at sea, which must be a key element in the Minister's thinking. Perhaps he will clarify the first point I made on this fairly non-controversial Bill which needs to be passed this week and then signed into law.
Regarding the definition section, could the Bill have been used, as the Labour Party believes, to have made some progress on the single hull issue? The Minister referred to sensitive sea areas, the PSSAs, to which he has given some attention and about which there have been extensive discussions at IMO level between Ireland and a number of other countries. Given his comments on Second and Committee and Stages, I am not clear if the 48-hour notice rule, which Ireland and a number of other countries are putting forward, will apply to single hulled vessels of fuel oil traversing our waters. Will these old 1970s ships, which have caused disaster after disaster, be consigned at long last to history? I was referring to the Oil Pollution (Civil Liability and Compensation) (Amendment) Act 1998 and section 3 of the Oil Pollution of the Sea (Civil Liability and Compensation) Act 1988 where there is a definition of ships. Will the Minister clarify whether he can take steps under this legislation to try to deal with some of the concerns raised on Second and Committee Stages?
The amendment before us is very simple. I asked the Minister on Second Stage if the Attorney General's office keeps a handbook to help Government Ministers and their staff to frame legislation. This would be helpful to the Labour Party when seeking to amend legislation. If such a handbook exists for the drafting of regulations or Bills, perhaps he would let the Opposition have a copy of either or both, which would be very helpful.
My amendment seeks to delete lines 14 to 32 in page 7 and substitute a textual amendment of the European Communities (Civil and Commercial Judgments) Regulations 2002 as follows:
29A.–The European Communities (Civil and Commercial Judgments) Regulations 2002 are hereby amended by the insertion of the following regulation after regulation 3–
'3A.–(1) Paragraph (2) shall apply only to a Judgment of a Member State in relation to the Supplementary Fund (within the meaning of the Oil Pollution of the Sea (Civil Liability and Compensation) Act 1988).
(2) The Brussels I Regulation and these Regulations apply in respect of a Judgment of a Member State other than a court or tribunal of a territory of a Member State to which the Brussels I Regulation does not apply.'.".
What the Labour Party proposes to do is to improve the drafting of the Bill. We understand that the Attorney General's office decided recently to make just textual amendments rather than non-textual amendments, which are more difficult to understand. We have tried to directly amend the regulation rather than simply refer to it. The Minister said on Second Stage that he is not prepared to accept this but we believe it is better drafting practice.