"The Regulations"

means, unless the context indicates otherwise, the Commercial Diving Regulations, 2022;

"Acceptable risk"

means a level of risk as indicated by a properly performed HIRA, which is acceptable in terms of the requirements and conditions set out in the Occupational Health and Safety Act and its Regulations, and is as low as is reasonably practicable;

"Alpha flag"

means an International Code Flag Alpha

"Bailout set" or "bailout system"

means an independent supply of the appropriate breathing mixture carried and activated by the diver, which is of sufficient capacity to allow the diver to reach a place of safety in emergency situations;

"Bottom time"

means the elapsed time from when the diver starts descent from the surface to the time when the diver starts final ascent from the working dive, unless otherwise defined by the decompression schedule in use;

"Buddy line"

means a line not exceeding five metres in length, which has a breaking strength of at least five hundred Newton and which is used for securely connecting two divers to each other during a dive;

"Decompression stop"

means a pause, calculated with the aid of decompression tables which must be observed at a specific depth below the surface of the water during a diver's ascent from the underwater working place,in order to release excess nitrogen or other inert gases absorbed by his or her body, and for a compression chamber dive it has a corresponding meaning;

"Diving mode"

means a dive requiring scuba air, scuba nitrox, surface supplied air, surface supplied mixed gas or saturation diving apparatus, with related procedures and techniques;

"Diving Operation"

means all activities of a diving team in preparation for, during and after a dive;

"Life line"

means a line or something, at least eight millimetres in diameter and with a minimum breaking strength of five Kn, one end of which is fastened as the control point on the surface of the water and the other end of which is secured to the diver during a dive;

"Live boating"

means diving from a vessel that is moving under power and propellers are engaged while divers are in the water;

"Maximum Operating Depth"

means the depth at which the oxygen partial pressure of a breathing gas reaches the maximum accepted value. The maximum acceptable oxygen partial pressure will depend on the mode of diving and should be specified in the Operations Manual;

"Shot line"

means a line of at least fifteen millimetres in diameter, one end of which is fastened at the control point on the surface of the water and which extends to the underwater working place where the other end is fastened or anchored and along which the diver must dive to the underwater working place and again return to the surface of the water;

"Surface-supplied diving equipment"

means diving equipment which includes a bail-out system, a full body diver safety harness, an underwater voice communication system, a surface control panel, an umbilical cord and a full-face mask or helmet in which the supply of suitable breathing mixture is dependent

on a continuous supply from the surface of the water;

"Toolbox talk"

means an informal group discussion that focuses on a particular safety issue, also intended to facilitate health and safety discussions at the work site;

"Umbilical cord"

means a life support line, comprising of a gas supply, pneumofathom meter and a communication cable which has a strength equivalent to or greater than that of a life-line;

"Wet bell"

means a compartment at ambient pressure by means of which the divers can be transported to and from the underwater work site, which allows the divers to access the surrounding environment and which is capable of being used as a refuge during diving operations.