S.I. No. 247/1983:

MERCHANT SHIPPING (LIGHT DUES) ORDER, 1983.

MERCHANT SHIPPING (LIGHT DUES) ORDER, 1983.

I, JAMES MITCHELL, Minister for Transport, in exercise of the powers conferred on me by section 2 of the Merchant Shipping (Light Dues) Act, 1983 (No. 18 of 1983), hereby order as follows:--

1. (1) This Order may be cited as the Merchant Shipping (Light Dues) Order, 1983.

(2) This Order, other than Article 4 hereof, shall be deemed to have come into operation on the 31st day of May, 1983.

2. In this Order "the Second Schedule" means the Second Schedule to the Merchant Shipping (Mercantile Marine Fund) Act, 1898.

3. The Second Schedule is hereby amended by the substitution of the following for the entries therein:

"

LIGHT DUES

PART I

Scale of Payments

1. Home trade ships other than sailing ships:

( a ) Full rate: £1.60 per 10 tons per voyage.

( b ) Reduced rate (visiting cruise ships): 80p per 10 tons per voyage.

2. Foreign-going ships other than sailing ships:

( a ) Full rate: £3.20 per 10 tons per voyage.

( b ) Reduced rate (visiting cruise ships): £1.60 per 10 tons per voyage.

3. Home trade sailing ships: 80p per 10 tons per voyage.

4. Foreign-going sailing ships: £1.60 per 10 tons per voyage.

5. In place of payments per voyage, the following payments:--

( a ) for pleasure yachts which the general lighthouse authority is satisfied are ordinarily kept or used outside the State, Great Britain, Northern Ireland or the Isle of Man, a payment in respect of any visit of 80p per 10 tons for every period of 30 days or less comprised in such visit.

( b ) for tugs and pleasure yachts not included in subparagraph (a) of this paragraph, an annual payment of £9.60 per 10 tons.

PART II

Rules

1. A ship shall not in any year be required to make payments on account of light dues--

( a ) if the ship is a home trade ship, for more than 14 voyages;

( b ) if the ship is a foreign-going ship, for more than 7 voyages; and

( c ) if the ship makes voyages during the year both as a home trade and as a foreign-going ship, for more than 14 voyages, counting each voyage made as a foreign-going ship as 2 voyages:

Provided that in any year no ship which is not a sailing ship shall be required to pay more than £22.40 per 10 tons and no sailing vessel shall be required to pay more than £11.20 per 10 tons.

2. A ship shall not pay dues both as a home trade ship and as a foreign-going ship for the same voyage, but a ship, trading from a port outside home trade limits and discharging cargo or landing passengers or mails at any port within home trade limits, shall be deemed to be on one voyage as a foreign-going ship until she has arrived at the last port of discharge of cargo or passengers brought from beyond home trade limits; and a ship, trading to a port outside home trade limits and loading cargo or receiving passengers or mails at any port within home trade limits, shall be deemed to be on one voyage as a foreign-going ship from the time she starts from the first port of loading of cargo or passengers destined for a port beyond home trade limits.

3. The voyage of a home trade ship shall be reckoned from port to port, but a home trade ship shall not be required to pay dues for more than three voyages in one month.

4. The voyage of a foreign-going ship trading outwards shall be reckoned from the first port of lading in the State, Great Britain, Northern Ireland or the Isle of Man of cargo destined for a port outside home trade limits.

5. The voyage of a foreign-going ship trading inwards shall be reckoned from her last port of lading outside home trade limits to the last port in the State, Great Britain, Northern Ireland or the Isle of Man at which any cargo laden outside those limits is discharged.

6. Dues payable per voyage under this Act may be paid and shall be collected only at ports where a ship loads or discharges cargo or passengers or mails.

7. Annual payments shall be payable at the commencement of the year in respect of which they are made: Provided that a new vessel shall pay only 80p per 10 tons for each month after the commencement of her first voyage until the first of April following.

8. Every such payment as is referred to in paragraph 5 (a) of Part I of this Schedule shall be payable at the commencement of the period in respect of which it is made: Provided that a vessel shall not in any year be required to pay on account of light dues a sum greater than the sum which such vessel would be liable to pay under paragraph 5 (b) of the said Part I.

9. ( a ) For the purposes of this Schedule--

a ship's tonnage shall be register tonnage reckoned in accordance with the Act of 1955, or in the case of a ship registered under the Act of 1894 and not registered under the Act of 1955, reckoned in accordance with the Act of 1894 or in the case of an unregistered vessel, the tonnage reckoned in accordance with the Thames measurement adopted by Lloyd's Register;

a year shall be reckoned from the 1st day of April;

in calculating any payment of light dues where the vessel's tonnage is not a multiple of 10 tons, any excess of 5 tons or less shall be rounded down and any excess of more than 5 tons shall be rounded up to the nearest such multiple;

a ship shall be treated as a visiting cruise ship if, and only if, it makes a call at one or more ports in the State, Great Britain, Northern Ireland or the Isle of Man for the purpose of disembarking passengers for a visit ashore and for subsequent re-embarkation (whether or not at the same port) and at no time during that cruise does the ship--

(i) embark or disembark any other passengers; or

(ii) load or discharge any cargo or mails at any such port.

( b ) in this paragraph--

( a ) "the Act of 1894" means the Merchant Shipping Act, 1894;

( b ) "the Act of 1955" means the Mercantile Marine Act, 1955 (No. 29 of 1955).

PART III

Exemptions

The following ships or vessels shall be exempted from dues under this Schedule:--

( a ) Ships belonging to the Government or to a Minister of the Government or to a Sovereign foreign Government unless carrying cargo or passengers for freight or fares;

( b ) Sailing ships (not being pleasure yachts) of less than 100 tons and all ships of less than 20 tons;

( c ) Vessels (other than tugs or pleasure yachts) when navigated wholly and bona fide in ballast on which no freight is earned and without any passenger;

( d ) Ships putting in for bunkers, stores, or provisions for their own use on board;

( e ) Vessels for the time being employed in sea-fishing or in sea-fishing services, exclusive of vessels used for catching fish otherwise than for profit;

( f ) Ships putting in from stress of weather or for the purpose of repairing, or because of damage: Provided they do not discharge or load cargo other than cargo discharged with a view to such repairs, and afterwards reshipped;

( g ) Dredgers and hoppers for the time being employed solely in dredging channels or deepening water for or on behalf of a harbour authority or a conservancy authority, within the functional area of that authority or in disposing within or without such area, otherwise than by way of sale or exchange, of the spoil from such operations;

( h ) Sailing yachts of and above 100 tons which are not registered in the State, Great Britain, Northern Ireland, the Channel Islands or the Isle of Man, and which come into the territorial waters of the State with the sole object of taking part in yacht racing, so long as such yachts are coming into, remaining in or leaving such territorial waters solely in connection with such object;

( i ) Ships making voyages entirely performed in waters in respect of which no lighthouse, buoy or beacon is maintained by a General Lighthouse Authority at the expense of the General Lighthouse Fund;

( j ) Yachts which, as regards the whole of any year ending on the 31st day of March, are laid up."

4. (1) The Second Schedule, as amended by Article 3 of this Order, is hereby amended by--

( a ) the substitution of the following for Part I thereof:

"

PART I

Scale of payments

1. Home trade ships other than sailing ships:

( a ) Full rate:£1.76 per 10 tons per voyage.

( b ) Reduced rate (visiting cruise ships): 88p per 10 tons per voyage.

2. Foreign-going ships other than sailing ships:

( a ) Full rate: £3.52 per 10 tons per voyage:

( b ) Reduced rate (visiting cruise ships): £1.76 per 10 tons per voyage.

3. Home trade sailing ships: 88p per 10 tons per voyage.

4. Foreign-going sailing ships: £1.76 per 10 tons per voyage.

5. In place of payments per voyage, the following payments:--

( a ) for pleasure yachts which the general lighthouse authority is satisfied are ordinarily kept or used outside the State, Great Britain, Northern Ireland or the Isle of Man, a payment in respect of any visit of 88p per 10 tons for every period of 30 days or less comprised in such visit.

( b ) for tugs or pleasure yachts not included in subparagraph (a) of this paragraph an annual payment of £10.56 per 10 tons.";

( b ) the substitution in Rule 1 of Part II of "£24.64" and of "£12.32" for "£22.40" and "£11.20" respectively; and

( c ) the substitution in Rule 7 of Part II of "88p" for "80p",

and the said Rules 1 and 7, as so amended, are set out in paragraph 1 and 2, respectively, of the Table to this Article.

(2) This Article shall be deemed to have come into operation on the 1st day of August, 1983.

TABLE

1. 1. A ship shall not in any year be required to make payments on account of light dues--

( a ) if the ship is a home trade ship, for more than 14 voyages;

( b ) if the ship is a foreign-going ship, for more than 7 voyages; and

( c ) if the ship makes voyages during the year both as a home trade and as a foreign-going ship, for more than 14 voyages, counting each voyage made as a foreign-going ship as 2 voyages:

Provided that in any year no ship which is not a sailing ship shall be required to pay more than £24.64 per 10 tons and no sailing vessel shall be required to pay more than £12.32 per 10 tons.

2. 7. Annual payments shall be payable at the commencement of the year in respect of which they are made: Provided that a new vessel shall pay only 88p per 10 tons for each month after the commencement of her first voyage until the first of April following.

GIVEN under my Official Seal, this 18th day of August, 1983.

JAMES MITCHELL,

Minister for Transport.

EXPLANATORY NOTE.

This Order prescribes the scale of payments, the rules and the exemptions in relation to light dues collected from vessels calling to ports within the State and gives statutory effect to the levels of light dues which have been levied in the period since 31st May last.