The High Court quashed prohibitions that had prevented two Irish registered fishing vessels from sailing from La Coruna, Spain, ruling that the Minister for Transport lacked legal power to impose them on the basis of breaches of Irish manning rules.
Mr Justice O’Neill’s judgment concerned Skellig Fish Limited and Spanish company Pesquerias Alonso Sociedad Anonima, which operated the MFV Skellig Light II and MFV Myrdoma F. The companies sought judicial review of the Minister’s position on officer qualifications and later added challenges to notices prohibiting the vessels from sailing.
The Marine Survey Office had said the crews did not meet Irish requirements for officer qualifications and basic crew training. The crew later completed basic safety training, leaving officer qualifications as the live issue. After inspections in January 2009, the authorities said the vessels could not sail and certificates of compliance would not issue until manning requirements were met. The notices followed incidents involving the vessels, including a crew member lost overboard from Skellig Light II and Myrdoma F running aground. The court’s ruling concerned the legal basis for the prohibitions, not the merits of those incidents.
The companies argued that the safety rules implementing the Torremolinos Protocol dealt with vessels and equipment, not manning, and could not support a sailing ban for manning deficiencies. The Minister relied on provisions concerning emergency muster lists and crew training. The judge agreed that those provisions did not encompass the separate domestic manning requirements. He found that the respondents had not identified a statutory power to detain the vessels for those breaches, and concluded they had no legal power to prohibit the vessels from sailing and detain them in La Coruna on that basis.
The court also rejected the companies’ challenge to the 90 per cent English language test mark required for senior deck officers. It found the Minister had authority to set competency standards, including language standards. The companies had not produced evidence that their crew could not meet the test or that the threshold was an insuperable obstacle. The judge was not persuaded that it was disproportionate to the aim of safety at sea.
The judgment rejected the companies’ legitimate expectation argument based on decades of previous practice and their joint venture. It also noted that crew members had not applied through the EU mutual recognition process for professional qualifications. The judge extended time to allow the companies to add their challenge to the sailing prohibitions, then granted certiorari quashing those prohibitions. The judgment does not state a damages award or make a broader finding that the officers’ qualifications satisfied Irish manning rules.