The invaluable KildareStreet alerted me to this:
Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Scrutiny of EU Legislative Proposals 7 Oct 2014 3:00 pm
Marcella Corcoran Kennedy [FG, Laois-Offaly]
Schedule A: COM (2014) 452 is a proposal for a Council directive implementing the European agreement concluded by the European Barge Union, EBU, the European Skippers Organisation, ESO, and the European Transport Workers Federation, ETF, concerning certain aspects of the organisation of working time in inland waterway transport. Is it agreed that this proposal warrants further scrutiny? Agreed.
Given that Ireland has no inland waterway transport, I wondered why the committee was bothering about it, but it seems that the EU proposal would also cover trip boats.
The text of the proposal can be downloaded here [PDF; make sure you click on the Union Flag because the tricolour beneath it is the Italian, not the Irish, flag] and the Annex here [{DF; same warning]. As far as I can see, the Proposal is legal gobbledegook and the meat is in the Annex, which might affect hours of work on inland passenger vessels. although I don’t know what the current regulations are so I can’t say what changes are proposed.
Irish waterways history 