MINISTER FOR Transport Noel Dempsey said fishermen would be given every opportunity to make their vessels fully compliant with new safety standards amid claims that 200 fishing jobs have been lost because of the new certification system in place.
Mr Dempsey said he had been assured by the marine survey office that it would be “as understanding” as possible in implementing a new statutory instrument governing the safety certification of 15-24m fishing boats.
Fishermen who contact the marine survey office will be issued with temporary certificates once the marine surveyors are satisfied the vessel meets a certain level of safety and no lives are being put at risk, said Mr Dempsey.
Mr Dempsey said he was surprised to learn that the Irish South and West Fish Producers Organisation (IS&WFPO) was calling for a reclassification of boats to allow smaller vessels different safety standards given the number of trawler tragedies off the south coast in recent years.
The organisation’s chief executive Eibhlín O’Sullivan said that while the objective of the certification regulations in ensuring safety on board all vessels was laudable, it didn’t believe that the statutory instrument was the correct one to ensure the safety of the smaller 15-18m boats. According to Ms O’Sullivan there are about 99 vessels in the 15-24m category and, as of last Monday, some 63 of these had applied to undertake the survey necessary to obtain the certificate with a further 36 vessels ceasing fishing as of October 1st.
Ms O’Sullivan said many boat owners didn’t apply for the survey to obtain the certificate as they had no means of obtaining the necessary finance but if the classification system was changed, they could continue fishing.
The fishing organisation said the average cost of the survey was about €2,000, while the cost of remediation could vary between €10,000 and €100,000.
Ms O’Sullivan said: “We estimate that 200 jobs are being lost as a result of this move and the loss of 200 jobs in the current economic climate is devastating to any industry but none more so than the fishing industry which tends to be a generational one.”
However Mr Dempsey questioned the number of job losses cited by the IS&WFPO and said it was difficult to understand how fishermen could find the cost of meeting the safety standards prohibitive when they hadn’t contacted the marine survey office to have their boats checked.
