Dessie Ellis (Dublin North West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank Mr. Lawlor for his presentation and have a couple of questions. What are his views on the potential selling off of New Ross Port which is State-owned? Does he agree with selling it off? On reviewing the figures supplied, I acknowledge huge profits are not made, but does Mr. Lawlor think doing so would be detrimental to the port? Does he think that were it to enter private hands, it would deteriorate further?

One challenge concerns the expansion of the tourism industry. Does Mr. Lawlor consider there to be room for further growth in this area in drawing in more tourists, greater numbers of leisure boats and so on? Does he see merit in the plans to merge the different ports, as recommended, as far as I recall in the McCarthy report? I ask him to elaborate on these points.