THE Irish Institute of Master Mariners has called for cross-party political support for the Bill updating the powers of the lighthouse service.
The delay in passing the Merchant Shipping (Commissioners of Irish Lights) Bill 1997 has been described as "deplorable" by the institute's council. The legislation has been criticised by opposition deputies because of its provisions for the proposed Loran-C navigation mast at Loop Head in Co Clare.
The Bill was drawn up on foot of a Supreme Court judgment that Irish Lights had no remit to run radio-based navigation aids on the Irish coastline. The court found that under the existing Merchant Shipping Act it was empowered to install only lighthouses, buoys or beacons.
The institute says that its members and its international colleagues had demanded the Loran C navigation system, which is a Europe-wide alternative to the US-designed satellite Global Positioning System (GPS). Four years after Ireland had signed the international agreement for the network the transmitter - the 720-foot mast - is "the only element not yet implemented and operational," it says.
"As prudent mariners, we recognise that electronic navigation is increasingly the norm, and that many ship navigators are no longer using the traditional skills that were required for ocean and coastal passages, the institute continues.
"To avoid the type of shipwreck and pollution that makes headlines in newspapers, it is even more vital that shipmasters and others who traverse the oceans of the world are not required to be dependent on a single navigating system."
