First, I am taking this Bill for the Minister of State at the Department of the Marine, Deputy O'Sullivan, who is unwell. I know the House will join with me in wishing him a speedy recovery to full health.
In June 1990 the Government authorised the Minister for Foreign Affairs to arrange for signature, subject to ratification, of the International Convention on Salvage, 1989. This required that new domestic legislation be enacted to give effect to the convention. This offered an ideal opportunity to carry out a thorough review of existing legislation in respect of salvage and wreck and to address, in particular, the question of the removal of wrecks which constitute an obstruction to navigation or a blight on the environment. It was also decided to avail of the opportunity to strengthen and formalise the powers and duties of persons authorised to take charge of attempts to rescue vessels in distress.
Marine casualties in Community waters in recent years culminating in the Braer incident off the Scottish coast last January provided the impetus for the European Community to identify and act on measures to minimise the risk of further such catastrophes and resultant ecological damage. The Commission document, A Common Policy on Safe Seas, lays down the policy objectives for the elimination of substandard vessels, operators and crew from Community waters. A number of measures were targeted for priority action when the Council of Transport Ministers endorsed these objectives last June. I pay tribute to the Minister of State, Deputy O'Sullivan, because he has done a lot to strengthen resolve of the European Union in that area.
Priority measures include setting up a ship traffic control system at Community and national level; the creation of environmentally senstive areas from which high-risk shipping must be excluded; the need for shipowners to contribute to the costs of management, prevention and intervention where accidents occur; more intensive port State control inspections of foreign ships entering Community ports; comprehensive reporting systems for ships carrying dangerous or polluting goods into or out of Community ports as well as transiting along European coasts.
Ireland is actively involved in the Community work programmes to translate these measures as quickly as possible into concrete action. I welcome this Community action to minimise the risks of marine pollution and to improve safety. Ireland has already taken steps to improve its capability in this regard. Slanú, the Irish Marine Emergency Service, or IMES, was established by the Government as a division of the Department of the Marine in May 1991 with responsibility for the operational control and co-ordination of all types of marine emergency response, including search and rescue, sea and coastal pollution, shipwreck and casualty response. The establishment of IMES reflects the Government's commitment to provide the necessary resources to ensure, in so far as it is possible, the safety of life at sea.
The Bill provides a new statutory framework for dealing with marine emergencies and their aftermath. Marine casualties can have three phases: a ship can be in danger or distress due to a technical failure or heavy weather; the ship is subsequently wrecked, abandoned or stranded; and the ensuing wreck may pose a threat to navigation, public health or the environment. The Bill fundamentally strengtens the powers of relevant authorities in these situations.
A number of the provisions in this Bill are designed to enable the Irish Marine Emergency Service to discharge its functions even more effectively. Part II enables the Minister for the Marine to appoint authorised officers, who will normally be drawn from IMES, to save lives and to assist vessels in distress. The authorised officer is given a general power to take such steps as he or she thinks fit to save the lives of persons on board the vessel at risk, the vessel itself and its cargo which, together with the specific powers proposed, will ensure flexibility and prompt response in order to deal with the specific circumstances of unpredictable emergencies as they arise. The specific powers available include the requisition of vehicles, ships and aircraft, the use of adjoining lands and the enlisting of relevant persons to assist with the rescue operation.
In relation to the question of the use of existing or adjoining lands, it is interesting to note that an amendment moved by Deputy Barrett in the Lower House was accepted and, for the first time, precludes the owner of the land from any liability for anybody coming onto the land, except where there was malicious intent on the part of the owner in relation to that individual. That is an interesting development which I would like to think would be known from now on as the Barrett Development. It may introduce a totally new law in other areas related to that particular problem that would require amendment.
If the vessel in distress is located in a harbour the Bill provides for the harbourmaster to assume the functions of the authorised officer. The Bill also gives the Garda Síochana powers to search and detain persons suspected of plundering a vessel in distress or its cargo. I regret to say that experience has shown that unscrupulous individuals may try to take advantage of an emergency by looting a stricken ship. The State must protect as far as possible shipowners and crew against such an eventuality.
This enhanced ability of the rescue services and other agencies to intervene will help to ensure that most incidents do not progress beyond the distress stage. In the event, however, that the vessel becomes stranded, abandoned or wrecked, a salvage operation may be attempted. The existing law on salvage requires to be updated to ensure that salvage operations are encouraged and undertaken in a responsible manner. The Bill will, therefore, give effect in Irish law to the provisions of the International Convention on Salvage, which prescribes the internationally accepted duties of shipowners, shipmasters and salvors during and after salvage operations. It also places on all concerned a clear responsibility to prevent or minimise damage to the environment.
At this stage, I would like to address Senators briefly on the underlying approach to salvage. Salvors have traditionally worked in a high risk business with large rewards for those who conclude successful salvage operations, but nothing for those who fail. There is a great deal to be said for this approach as it would be unreasonable for an owner of a stranded vessel or its cargo to pay a salvor who fails to rescue any of the endangered property.
However, the International Convention on Salvage makes one critically important change to the traditional principle of no cure, no pay or no foal, no fee. Under existing law, there is no incentive for a salvor to protect the environment when undertaking a salvage operation. The salvor's reward comes purely from saving the ship, crew and its cargo. Under the provisions of the Bill owners will be required to compensate salvors who have taken steps to minimise damage to the environment. This a very practical and proper step. One might describe it as being ecologically correct. That provision will apply even where the salvage operation itself has been unsuccessful. In view of the number of serious marine pollution incidents and threats to which Ireland has been exposed in the past and our increased awareness of the need to protect the marine environment, this represents a timely and vital change in the law of salvage.
The Bill provides for the making of contracts to undertake salvage operations and lays down the criteria for deciding the amount of reward to be paid for the successful undertaking of a salvage operation. These criteria will also apply to compensation to be made for minimising or preventing damage to the environment.
The Bill also provides that payment to the salvor by the owner for the saving of life will take priority over claims for payment in respect of property. The Bill also reiterates the general duty of a master of any ship to come to the assistance of any person in danger of being lost at sea.
Part IV of the Bill comprehensively addresses the question of wreck removal. The existing law on wrecks, which is contained in the Merchant Shipping Act, 1894, is being updated and strengthened. Receivers of wrecks, appointed by the Minister for the Marine, have usually been officers of the Customs and Excise Service. Other persons may also be so appointed, where necessary. Under the Bill, receivers of wrecks will retain their function as "honest broker" between the owner and the salvor of wrecks.
The first duty of a receiver is to take possession of a wreck whose ownership has not been established. The Bill provides that anybody, other than the owner, finding or recovering a wreck must deliver it into the possession of the receiver.
The receiver must then give notice of taking possession of the wreck, with a view to establishing ownership and ultimately handing it over to its rightful owner, provided of course that security for any salvage fees has been forthcoming from the said owner. In the event of no owner being found, the Bill provides that the Director of the National Museum, on behalf of the State, may claim the wreck if it is of archaeological, historical or artistic merit. While the National Monuments Act, 1987, is the principal legislation covering the safeguard of wrecks of historic importance, I am proposing this provision to further strengthen our powers to protect our national heritage.
I am pleased that the Bill will firmly place the onus on the owner to remove the wreck if it constitutes a hindrance to navigation, or a threat to coastal communities or the marine environment. We are all familiar with the phenomenon of unsightly wrecks around the coastline and the Bill will help us to ensure against this in future.
Provision is also being made to deal with circumstances where an owner refuses to remove such wreck within a reasonable timescale. In such circumstances, harbour authorities, local authorities or the Commissioners of Irish Lights are empowered to remove wrecks or otherwise render them harmless and, most importantly, to recover the expenditure incurred by them from the owner.
I am also taking the opportunity to safeguard property on board a wrecked or stranded vessel by making it an offence. for an unauthorised person to board such vessel without the permission of the master or owner.
Finally, the burial of human remains at sea is addressed in Part V of the Bill. Unauthorised burials at sea can pose a risk to public health or cause a navigational hazard, and can also give rise to personal distress in the event of a body being washed ashore. Accordingly, the Bill provides for an enabling power to make regulations for a suitable regime under which burials at sea may take place.
Section 66 of the Bill deals with burial at sea. This is an interesting provision. There are five or six applications annually for such burial. Unauthorised burial at sea is addressed in the Bill for the first time. Grief and concern is experienced by the relatives of persons whose bodies are buried at sea in an unauthorised or unacceptable way. The corpses of the remains become a threat or, alternatively, are washed up on the foreshore. Section 66 is being introduced to prevent this.