There are practically no resources over here to enforce the new laws.
The Police have one Targa 31 and two RIBs to cover the whole country.
They do move around a bit with the emphasis on their home base beside us here on the Shannon.
Their emphasis in fairness ( and correctly in my view has been to enforce the need to wear life jackets . In a year of operation, I am not aware of anyone having yet been either charged or convicted under the new legislation .
Talking to the gardai (police) over here, my impression would be that the first person to be charged willmost likely be someone who has ignored repeated warnings about kids wearing lifejackets aboard their boat.
Our new garda water unit ( trained by our school !) have sensibly adopted a friendly big brother role which is proving far more effective at changing attitudes on the water than a heavy arm of the law type approach.
I personally think that with the introduction of mandatory third party insurance over here , that the ultimate enforcers of the new laws will be ( as You have suggested ) the Insurance companies, with cowboys caught acting the maggot being done on having no insurance . The Insurance Company will then decline to pay out if the laws have been transgressed.
But at the moment we still have kids who are being refused basic training, driving about without training .
A real case of silly laws turning the situation they were supposed to make safe into a more dangerous one.
Other silly laws which I have written about extensively with my Marine Journo hat on are the speed limits as opposed to the far more sensible no wash zones . But as we say here in Ireland ,
" Sin Sceal eile ! " - That's another story !
Best wishes ,
Stuart
www.powerboat.org
