The purpose of this Bill is to enable Ireland to implement the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea, 1960. This Convention was adopted by an international conference of maritime States, including Ireland, convened under the auspices of the Inter-Governmental Maritime Consultative Organisation (more commonly known, from its initials, as IMCO).
As Senators will have observed, the Bill is a rather technical one. Nevertheless, it deals with a subject which is of the greatest importance, not only to ships' crews and officers, but to all of us who have occasion, at one time or another, to travel by sea.
Living as we do on an island, it is, I think, only proper that we should as a nation have a particular interest in maritime matters. While the scope for Irish talents, in this as in so many other fields of activity, was for centuries restricted by unfavourable circumstances, nevertheless Irishmen succeeded in making their mark in seafaring. Senators may be interested to recall that the first regular steamship service in the world was undertaken—in 1823—by the Dublin Steam Packet Company. Other Irish "firsts" were the "Sirius"—an Irish-owned and Irish-manned vessel, and registered at the port of Dublin— which made the first all-steam crossing of the Atlantic from east to west, in 1838, and the Galway Line, which commenced the first regular transatlantic service, in 1850. It was, of course, also during the nineteenth century that the great shipbuilding industry of Belfast was developed.
But the sea, while it offers tremendous advantages to those who have the initiative to exploit its possibilities and resources, has also, throughout history, been a hazardous element, with its own special risks and dangers. The fear of the deep, of the perils of rock and wind and wave, finds expression in the literature of all ages and all countries. It is a sobering fact that in spite of the technical developments of modern times, there still occurs periodically some disaster to serve as a reminder to us that the age-old perils of the sea remain to be reckoned with.
Broadly speaking, it is only within the last hundred years or so that any concerted efforts have been made to ensure that ships complied with minimum standards of safety. I hope Senators will be interested in a brief sketch of the developments in this regard which have led up to the present Bill.
The great growth of both passenger and commercial shipping in the first half of the nineteenth century, particularly in the North Atlantic, and the unrestricted competition which prevailed in the laissez-faire era, led to scandalous abuses. Ships were regularly sent to sea in a dangerously overloaded state so as to secure the last possible penny of revenue; outworn vessels were kept in service; and in order to reduce operating costs the number of crew was often below the safe minimum.
The risks to which crews were exposed do not seem, as far as we can judge, to have given rise to any great public alarm. What did eventually cause public concern were the conditions in which the rapidly growing transatlantic emigrant traffic was carried. The graphic name of "coffin-ships" is one with which we, as Irishmen, have more cause than most to be familiar, since it was in such vessels that so many of our ancestors were compelled to risk the lives of themselves and their families when emigrating from their homeland in the period of the Great Famine.
The first attempts at State control of shipping were made slowly and reluctantly, being contrary to the economic doctrines of the day, and were initially applied only to passenger vessels. However, various enactments regulating merchant shipping including the safety of life at sea, were gradually passed in the second half of the last century. These culminated in the comprehensive Merchant Shipping Act of 1894, which codified and extended the scope of the law relating to shipping. This Act enabled the prevention of unseaworthy or undermanned ships from putting to sea, and provided for the survey of ships, the carriage of lifeboats, etc., the prevention of collisions by adherence to standard rules of navigation, the holding of inquiries into shipping casualties, and the suspension or cancellation of the certificates of ships' officers found to have been negligent.
The tendency towards the adoption of international standards of safety for shipping was given a powerful impetus by the "Titanic" disaster of 1912, following which an international conference of the principal maritime states was called to consider what steps they could take to render their national laws on the safety of life at sea more effective. The resulting International Convention was signed in January, 1914. It provided, among other things, for standards of construction of passenger ships; the testing of watertight doors etc., on these ships; and the carriage of sufficient numbers of lifeboats and rafts. Further provisions relating to passenger steamers covered the internal arrangement and the lighting of ships, manning of boats, certification of life-boatmen, fire prevention, and a requirement that ships carrying more than 50 persons should be fitted with wireless telegraphy equipment, that is, morse code apparatus. Passenger ships meeting these requirements would be eligible for a safety certificate; without this certificate they could not proceed to sea. However, the implementation of this Convention was held up, indefinitely as it turned out, by the outbreak of war.
After the war, measures to implement the 1914 Convention were postponed repeatedly, until eventually, in 1929, a fresh International Conference was convened to consider what alterations were necessary to the 1914 Convention. Experience during and after the war, and the great advances recorded about this time in such matters as radio communication, suggested the need to bring the original Convention up to date.
The 1929 Convention was modelled on that of 1914 but was of considerably wider scope and more detailed in character. It applied in the main only to passenger ships engaged on international voyages. Such ships were required to possess a general safety certificate, to be issued annually upon confirmation by survey that the ships complied with construction, life-saving and wireless telegraphy requirements; cargo ships of 1,600 tons gross and over were also required to carry certificates to show that they complied with the wireless telegraphy requirements. The Convention was implemented in Ireland by the Merchant Shipping (Safety and Load Line Conventions) Act, 1933.
With the passage of time and with further technical development, but more particularly in the light of the extensive experience of the working of safety equipment and procedures at sea during the Second World War, the need was felt to revise the 1929 Convention, and in 1948 another international conference was convened, which drew up a new Safety Convention. The principal advance made on this occasion was the extension of certain requirements to cargo ships. For the first time there was international agreement that cargo ships of 500 tons gross and upwards should be required to carry life-saving appliances. The range of life-saving equipment to be carried by passenger and cargo vessels was extended, varying with the size of ship. Lifeboats were required to have fixed or portable radio equipment, and ships were required to have mechanical davits for launching the lifeboats.
With regard to radio, all passenger ships, and cargo ships of 1,600 tons and upwards, were required to maintain a continuous watch on the distress radio frequency either by qualified radio officers or by automatic equipment. The requirement to carry radio was extended down from cargo ships of 1,600 tons to cargo ships of 500 tons. Whereas formerly only passenger ships of 5,000 tons were obliged to have a direction-finder, all ships, passenger and cargo, of 1,600 tons and over were henceforth required to have this equipment. Most of the Convention's provisions were applicable not only to ships of the ratifying country but to foreign ships while within that country's ports.
The 1948 Convention was given effect in Ireland by the Merchant Shipping (Safety Convention) Act, 1952, and by a series of statutory rules made under the Act in 1953.
In 1960 a further international conference was held under the auspices of IMCO to revise the 1948 Convention. IMCO, which is a specialised agency of the United Nations, came into being subsequent to 1948. It is concerned solely with maritime affairs; its first objective is to facilitate co-operation among Governments in technical matters of all kinds affecting shipping engaged in international trade and to encourage the adoption of the highest practicable standards in matters concerning maritime safety and the efficiency of navigation. The Convention adopted by the conference in general covered the same ground as the 1948 Convention but once again was more detailed than its predecessor, and prescribed higher standards.
A notable advance was that for the first time in the history of the shipping industry it has been agreed at an international level that the hull, equipment and machinery of cargo ships of 500 tons gross and over engaged in international trade should be surveyed periodically to ensure that the various components are adequate for the service for which the ships are intended. Other advances, though not so spectacular, are the requirements regarding the carriage of radio apparatus on cargo ships of between 300 and 500 tons gross, the carriage of inflatable liferafts, and more stringent requirements regarding the subdivision of some types of passenger ship, stability, watertight integrity, safety of electrical installations, and fire control.
The 1960 Convention came into force internationally in May, 1965, when it had been accepted by the required number of 15 countries, including seven countries each with at least a million tons gross of shipping. Up to the present date the Convention has been accepted by 45 countries of the 55 in all which were represented at the 1960 Conference. Acceptor countries include Britain, France, the Netherlands, West Germany and the United States.
It has been Ireland's policy to adhere to the highest accepted international standards of safety of life at sea. Furthermore, the recognised bodies representing Irish shipowners and seamen were consulted by my Department at an earlier stage about the Convention and they had no objections to its terms. The present Bill has, therefore, been drawn up with the object of enabling Ireland to implement the Convention.
The main provisions of the Bill convey the necessary powers for the making of rules prescribing requirements regarding the construction and periodical survey of the hull, equipment and machinery of specified Irish registered cargo ships; the issue of the appropriate certificates to such ships which comply with the rules; and the application of the rules to foreign ships which are in a port in the State unless they hold appropriate certificates from their own Government. It gives power to appoint bodies such as Lloyd's Register and Bureau Veritas who would be authorised to survey the ships concerned, in accordance with the rules, and to issue the appropriate certificates, in the same way as if the vessels had been surveyed by my Department's nautical survey staff. It requires the owner or master of a ship for which a certificate has been issued to notify the issuing authority of any alteration to the hull, equipment or machinery of the ship, and it prohibits Irish ships from proceeding to sea unless they hold the appropriate certificates. Power is also taken to fix, with the consent of the Minister for Finance, fees for the survey of cargo ships for construction certificates. Provision is made for the retention of the fees by any outside body, such as those I mentioned a moment ago, who may be authorised to carry out the survey.
The Bill, as Senators will note, is primarily an enabling measure. The actual process of giving statutory effect to the detailed technical requirements of the Convention is due to take place later, through technical Rules to be made by me in virtue of powers contained in the Act of 1952 and in this Bill. These Rules will take the form of statutory instruments, and I hope that they will be made within the course of the next few months. The Rules will be laid before the Dáil and Seanad in the customary manner.
Senators will have noted that an International Conference on Load Lines was held recently under the auspices of IMCO and was attended by 60 countries including Ireland. The Conference drew up the International Convention on Load Lines, 1966. This Convention establishes minimum free-boards for ships engaged on international voyages and constitutes another important contribution to the safety of life and property at sea. The Convention will come into force internationally 12 months after it has been accepted by at least 15 countries, seven of which possess not less than one million gross tons of shipping. This Bill, has, of course, no connection with the Convention and I mention the matter only to illustrate the fact that constant attention is being devoted to the safety of merchant shipping. Further legislation will be necessary to implement the Convention in due course.
The Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea, 1960, with which the Bill is concerned, is an agreed international document which is designed to achieve a raising of world-wide standards of safety of life at sea, in the light of continuing experience and having regard to new technical developments and inventions. It has at the same time the great advantage of ensuring as far as possible that no individual country will be deterred from adopting these high standards through fear of placing its shipping at a disadvantage relative to its international competitors. Accordingly, I confidently recommend the Bill for the approval of the Seanad.
