Vol. 574 No. 1
326 Mr. Durkan asked the Minister for Communications, Marine and Natural Resources if he has satisfied himself as to the adequacy of safety procedures on board all vessels operating to and from Irish ports or in Irish territorial waters; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [26571/03]
Safety standards for seagoing passenger and cargo vessels are developed and adopted at international level, principally from the Safety Conventions of the International Maritime Organisation and from initiatives at European level. My Department participates in the relevant IMO and EU committees that develop new standards and legislation. It continually updates our maritime law to ensure that all the resulting EU directives and IMO safety conventions are fully implemented.
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 international conventions and regulations applicable to ships of their size and type. All vessels are subject to surveys and inspections by their flag states and, under the EU port state control system, all vessels using Community ports are liable to inspections by any of the EU states they are visiting. The application of port state control ensures that at any given time a large number of ships operating within the area covered by the system have undergone an inspection by an EU port state control authority.
All Irish registered passenger and cargo vessels are inspected at least annually by my Department's marine surveyors.
In the case of Ireland's port state control obligations, following a redeployment of resources in the latter half of 2002 my Department achieved an improved inspection rate of 30% in 2002. This is above the 25% inspection rate requirement and improves the safety standards of ships using our ports. We have already achieved our 25% target for port state control this year and we are continuing to inspect foreign flag ships.
In addition, we carry out inspections under EU Directive 99/35 on foreign flag roll on-roll off passenger ferries operating into and out of our ports. These inspections include an initial scheduled inspection prior to a ro-ro passenger ship taking up a route and unscheduled inspections on these ro-ro passenger ships throughout the year. As part of our survey regime for Irish registered ro-ro passenger ships we carry out drills as part of the annual survey requirement.
The monitoring of ships, by regular inspections, is proving to be an effective measure in encouraging full compliance with international safety standards. It also ensures that the vast majority of vessels operating into and out of Irish ports comply with those standards.
