Call for Legislation to Prevent Incidents on Pleasure Craft
Friday, January 4th, 2001
By Tony Murphy
Figures showing a huge increase in the amount of incidents at seas involving
pleasure craft prompted a call today for legislation that will force boat
users to be properly equipped with safety equipment before going out on
the water.
The latest figures showed that in the past year the amount of pleasure
boat
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incidents which had to be dealt with by the lifeboat far outweighed emergency
calls to fishing and other boats. The R.N.L.I. is now calling on Marine
Minister, Frank Fahey to introduce legislation as soon as possible.
Backing the call, Tommy Hickson of the Arklow Lifeboat Service said that
while legislation would provide some assistance it would be very difficult
to police boats properly. `A harbour master can check the boats before they
leave port and ensure they have the proper safety equipment such as flares
etc.', said Tommy.
However, he added that once the vessel leaves the harbour it would be very
hard to police the boat. Once a vessel gets into any sort of trouble there
is an onus on lifeboat crews to go to its rescue.
Tommy also pointed out that the Arklow Lifeboat was called to a number
of serious incidents last year involving pleasure craft.
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