A Government decision to enforce small-boat safety regulations around the coastline will not have any impact on island voters in the Nice Treaty referendum, according to the Department of Communications, Marine and Natural Resources.
The first votes in the referendum are due to be cast on five Donegal islands today, while Mayo and Galway islands vote tomorrow.
However, warnings issued late last week to small-boat owners carrying out transport work to several Mayo islands have caused some alarm among coastal communities.
The vessel-owners were recently prevented from carrying personnel from the local authority and Irish Lights to two islands because their craft were not adequately licensed.
The five islands due to vote in Donegal today will be served by both helicopter and ferry, according to a spokeswoman for the county returning officer.
In the case of Inishfree island, Co Donegal, which has a community of nine, a licensed vessel will be used to transport the presiding officer, polling clerk and member of the Garda Síochána, the spokeswoman said.
The Mayo islands of Clare, Inishbiggle and Inishturk vote tomorrow, as do the communities on the three Aran islands and Inishbofin off Galway.
Islands in inner Clew Bay, where the controversy over unlicensed vessels arose last week, vote with the mainland on Saturday, as do the seven islands off south-west Cork.
Last Thursday surveyors from the Department of Communications, Marine and Natural Resources prevented two boat-owners from carrying workmen in their punts between the mainland and the islands of Clynish and Inishgort.
It is understood that both boat-owners were warned that the Garda would be called if they continued the practice without applying to have their vessels surveyed and licensed.
Ms Rhoda Twombly, who lives on nearby Inishlyre in the bay, said the islanders agreed wholeheartedly with safety regulations.
But this type of enforcement was heavy-handed, she said, and did not take into account the fact that the smaller islands did not have regular passenger ferry services.
"These are small punts which provide a service to the islands and are contracted by Mayo County Council or the Irish Lights or whoever is carrying out the work at the time," she explained.
"We had no warning that these regulations were now going to be enforced in this way.
"There is only one vessel in the area which complies with the regulations, but it is not suitable for accessing islands that don't have piers," Ms Twombly said.
"One of these owners who received the warning last week has had links going back generations with the lighthouse service, and both of them are very experienced seamen."
A spokesman for the Department of Communications, Marine and Natural Resources said that the vessels should be compliant with the rules under the 1992 Merchant Shipping Act.
One of the vessels concerned had been carrying too many passengers, he said.
