Merchant Shipping (Certification of Marine Engineer Officers) Regulations, 1981

• Jurisdiction: Ireland
• Citation: IR SI 12/1981
• Year: 1981

S.I. No. 12 of 1981.
MERCHANT SHIPPING (CERTIFICATION OF MARINE ENGINEER OFFICERS) REGULATIONS, 1981.
I, ALBERT REYNOLDS, Minister for Transport, in exercise of the powers conferred on me by sections 3 and 8 of the Merchant Shipping (Certification of Seamen) Act, 1979 (No. 37 of 1979), and the Tourism and Transport (Alteration of Name of Department and Title of Minister) Order, 1980 ( S.I. No. 11 of 1980 ) hereby make the following Regulations:
PART I Preliminary and General
	1 Citation and commencement.	1. These Regulations may be cited as the Merchant Shipping (Certification of Marine Engineer Officers) Regulations, 1981 and shall come into operation on the 1st day of September, 1981.
	2 Interpretation.	2. (1) In these Regulations—
"the Act of 1894" means the Merchant Shipping Act, 1894;
"the Act of 1979" means the Merchant Shipping (Certification of Seamen) Act, 1979 ;
"certificate of competency" means a certificate of competency as an engineer officer granted in accordance with these Regulations;
"certificate of service (engineer officer)" means a certificate of service (engineer officer) granted in accordance with these Regulations;
"service endorsement" means a service endorsement endorsed on a certificate of competency by virtue of these Regulations;
"examination" means an examination for a certificate of competency conducted by an examiner appointed for that purpose by the Minister;
"fishing boat" has the same meaning as in section 370 of the Act of 1894;
"GRT", in relation to a ship, means its gross registered tonnage, the gross tonnage of a ship having alternative gross tonnages being taken to be the larger of those tonnages;
"location" includes any offshore installation, any other installation (whether floating or resting on the sea-bed or the subsoil thereof) or any location at sea defined by reference to its latitude and longitude;
"Marine Notice" means a notice described as such and issued by the Department of Transport;
"Minister" means the Minister for Transport;
"partially smooth waters" means, in relation to any period specified in the First Schedule to the Merchant Shipping (Life-Saving Appliances) Rules, 1967 ( S.I. No. 100 of 1967 ), the waters of any of the areas specified in column 3 in relation to the period, weather or ship;
"petroleum products" means the following substances produced directly or indirectly from crude oil—
fuels, lubricants, bitumen, wax, industrial spirits and any wide-range substance, that is to say a substance whose final boiling point at normal atmospheric pressure is more than 50°C higher than its initial boiling point;
"pleasure craft" means a vessel primarily used for sport or recreation;
"proper officer" means an Irish Consul, a Superintendent of the Mercantile Marine Office or any officer in a port in the State exercising the functions of such a Superintendent;
"qualified marine engineer officer" means an engineer officer of the engineering department of a ship to which these Regulations apply who is qualified in accordance with Regulation 4 (2) of these Regulations;
"registered power" means, in relation to a ship, the brake or shaft power specified in the ship's certificate of registry, that is to say, the total continuous rated brake or shaft power of all the propulsion engines, irrespective of whether some of the power may be diverted from the propulsion shafts or whether or not all the power is normally used;
"sail training ship" means a ship of 80 GRT or over which, although equipped to be propelled by sail, is also provided with a propulsion engine and which carries to sea (in addition to the trained crew) persons under training or instruction;
"smooth waters" means waters other than the sea or partially smooth waters and includes waters of any of the areas specified in the second column of the First Schedule to the Merchant Shipping (Life-Saving Appliances) Rules, 1967;
"specified by the Minister" means specified in the Department of Transport Merchant Shipping publication entitled "Directions as to the Examination of Engineers under the Merchant Shipping Acts";
"trading area" means an area specified in Schedule 2 to these Regulations.
(2) In these Regulations—
( a ) references to a certificate of a numbered class are references to a certificate of the class which bears that number as indicated in Regulation 5 (1) (a) of these Regulations;
( b ) references to a certificate with a service endorsement shall be construed in accordance with Regulation 8 of these Regulations.
	3 Application.	3. (1) These Regulations apply to—
( a ) ships (including sail training ships but excluding fishing boats and pleasure craft) registered in the State which have a registered power of 350 kilowatts or more and which go to sea beyond the limits of smooth or partially smooth waters, and
( b ) ships (including sail training ships but excluding fishing boats and pleasure craft) registered outside the State which have a registered power of 350 kilowatts or more, which go to sea beyond the limits of smooth or partially smooth waters and which carry passengers between places in the State or on a voyage which begins and ends at the same place in the State and on which the ships call at no place outside the State.
(2) In respect of ships operating to, from or between locations in such closely defined limits as may be specified in a Marine Notice, the Minister may grant exemptions from all or any of the provisions of these Regulations (as may be specified in the exemption) for classes of cases or individual cases on such terms as he may so specify and may, subject to giving reasonable notice, alter or cancel any such exemption.
PART II Certification of Engineer Officers
	4 Manning of ships.	4. (1) Every ship to which these Regulations apply shall carry such number of qualified marine engineer officers as is required by Part III of these Regulations.
(2) For the purposes of these Regulations an officer shall be qualified if he is the holder for the time being of a certificate of competency issued under these Regulations or of a certificate which is to be treated as equivalent to such a certificate by virtue of Regulation 6 of these Regulations, and, at the material time, any such certificate is in force in relation to the person named in it and is of a class appropriate to the engineer officer's capacity in the ship.
	5 Classes of Certificates.	5. (1) ( a ) Certificates of competency shall be issued, in accordance with these Regulations, of the following classes:
Certificate of Competency (Marine Engineer Officer) Class 1
Certificate of Competency (Marine Engineer Officer) Class 2
Certificate of Competency (Marine Engineer Officer) Class 3
Certificate of Competency (Marine Engineer Officer) Class 4
( b ) Certificates of competency of Class 1, 2 or 4 shall be issued for motor or steam machinery or for combined motor and steam machinery.
( c ) Class 3 certificates shall be issued for motor machinery only.
(2) Service endorsements shall be issued in accordance with these Regulations in respect of certificates of competency of class 2, 3 or 4 for the appropriate description of ship set out in column (2) of the Table in Regulation 8 of these Regulations.
(3) For the purposes of these Regulations a certificate of competency of a class set out in the list in paragraph (1) (a) of this Regulation with or without a service endorsement (pursuant to Regulation 8 of these Regulations) shall be treated as being a certificate of a higher class than a certificate of any class which is set out after it in that list with or without a service endorsement, if the higher class certificate is issued for the same type of machinery, whether motor or steam, as the lower class certificate.
	6 Certificates equivalent to a certificate of competency under these Regulations.	6. (1) ( a ) Subject to subparagraph (b) of this paragraph a certificate of competency as engineer granted under section 93 of the Act of 1894 shall be treated as equivalent to a certificate of competency issued under these Regulations.
( b ) a certificate of competency of a class mentioned in column (1) of the Table to this paragraph shall be treated as equivalent to a certificate of competency issued under these Regulations of the class set out in column (2) of that Table opposite the mention in column (1).
( c ) A certificate of competency granted under section 93 of the Act of 1894 to which has been added by the Minister a certificate of service (engineer officer) under paragraph (2) of this Regulation shall be treated as equivalent to a certificate of competency of the appropriate class issued under these Regulations as marine engineer officer in respect of the same type of machinery as that for which the certificate of service was issued, subject to any limitation attached in accordance with paragraph 2 (d) of this Regulation.
( d ) A certificate of service (marine engineer officer) issued in accordance with these Regulations and granted by the Minister shall be treated as equivalent to a certificate of competency in the capacity for which the candidate has proved entitlement.
TABLE
(1) (2) Class of 1894 certificate Equivalent class of certificate of competency issued under these Regulations First Class Engineer Marine Engineer Officer Class 1 Second Class Engineer Marine Engineer Officer Class 2 with a service endorsement
Certificates of Service.
(2) ( a ) A certificate of service (engineer officer) shall be issued under these Regulations to an engineer officer who has fulfilled the conditions of Regulation 7 (2) of these Regulations and has satisfied the Minister that he has served as engineer officer in charge of a watch at sea in ships to which these Regulations apply—
(i) in a capacity not required to be served by an officer duly certificated under section 92 of...