Sailors in difficulty in Irish waters will be forced to depend on mobile phone coverage, which can be unreliable at sea, if a new Government ruling on ship radio licences is enforced, according to the Irish Sailing Association (ISA).
The ruling will also prevent emergency services from identifying vessels in distress in Irish waters, the ISA has warned in a letter sent this week to the Minister for Communications, Marine and Natural Resources, Mr Dermot Ahern.
The warning comes before an anticipated ruling from the Minister's Department that short-range certificates issued by the British Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) are no longer acceptable.
The Department said yesterday that it was "addressing and reviewing the situation in relation to a particular British operator radio certificate".
The ISA claims there has been no consultation on this, and says Ireland now has the "most bureaucratic radio-licensing regime amongst the major English-speaking maritime nations".
In a letter to the Minister, the ISA chief executive and secretary-general, Mr Paddy Boyd, says that the decision "suggests that the British MCA issues certificates that are sub-standard".
This was despite independent audits stating otherwise.