The Government has conceded that it cannot stop Irish Ferries from removing its vessels from the Irish maritime register and putting them on the Cypriot counterpart, it has emerged.
However, the Department of Communications, Marine and Natural Resources has not yet told Irish Ferries that it will not block the company's effort to move vessels off the Irish register.
Instead, the disclosure emerged in a letter from Taoiseach Bertie Ahern, received yesterday by Labour leader Pat Rabbitte, who has sharply criticised the ferry company.
In the letter, Mr Ahern said the "legal position is clear. Any undertaking that seeks to exercise its rights under European law to establish in another member state cannot be prevented from doing so".
The Government, Mr Ahern told Mr Rabbitte, would be in breach of its duties under the European Union treaties if it sought to stand in Irish Ferries' way, despite its objections.
The Minister for Communications, Marine and Natural Resources, Noel Dempsey, refused the company's transfer application last week, and demanded more information on the reflagging attempt.
Last night a spokesman for Mr Dempsey said the department had received extra details from the company which have since been referred on to Attorney General Rory Brady for consideration.
In particular, Irish Ferries had been asked to prove that it "actually intended to operate from Cyprus", and not just to have a paper registration on the island's maritime register.
Irish Ferries had originally attempted to put its ships on to the Bahamian register, but it opted for the Mediterranean island as the industrial controversy grew because Cyprus is a member of the EU.
Given the company's freedom to register in Cyprus, Mr Rabbitte said the Government had to force the issue to the top of the agenda at next week's meeting of European Union transport ministers.
"There have been strong words of condemnation from the Taoiseach and other Ministers over the weekend, but no effective action. Irish Ferries workers, who have been treated so appallingly by their employers, have a right to expect a bit more than sympathetic words from their Government," said the Labour leader.
The Labour Party recently tabled a Private Members' Bill, entitled the Mercantile Marine (Avoidance of Flags of Convenience) Bill, 2005, which would stop vessels from being taken off the Irish register and moved on to the registers of non-EU states.
"I believe that the long-term objective of rogue employers like Irish Ferries will be to re-register vessels to non-EU countries as pay and working conditions improve in the newer member states.
"The early enactment of this Bill would also reassure workers in other sectors that the Government was serious about delivering on its promise to prevent a 'race to the bottom'," Mr Rabbitte said.
Ireland and all other European Union states are parties to the United Nations' Convention on the Law of the Sea, agreed in Jamaica over 20 years ago.
Article 91 of the convention provides that: "Every state shall fix the conditions for the grant of its nationality to ships, for the registration of ships in its territory, and for the right to fly its flag. Ships have the nationality of the state whose flag they are entitled to fly. There must exist a genuine link between the state and the ship."
