Minister’s maritime safety plan to scuttle onboard drinking

LIFE JACKETS have been made compulsory on board any boat and drinking on board yachts is to be outlawed in a package of radical marine safety measures being floated by Dermot Ahern, Minister for Communications, Marine and Natural Resources.

The water safety measures are contained in new draft regulations published yesterday which will become law in two weeks, following a consultation period.

Mr Ahern said: “We have endured too many tragedies at sea and on our waterways. I fully appreciate that people have to take responsibility for their own safety but the time has come, I believe, to make the wearing of life jackets compulsory on most of our vessels.