Mr. Ray Lawlor:

On Senator Brennan's question on a comeback, my sporting career would never have needed such a description. It fizzled out without so much as a whimper. I was appointed to the board in 1997 and when that term of office came to a conclusion in 2002, a new board was appointed and I was not one of the members who were reappointed. In 2004, I was appointed to the board from New Ross Town Council and I sat on the board until 2009. My term of office, as a town councillor and as a board member, came to an end in 2009.

The advantages and disadvantages of a tidal river relate back to what I described earlier in terms of niche product that a particular ship owner or stevedore wants to move. The two stevedores in New Ross Port Company have always used the fact that they are 14 miles inland to their advantage, particularly with animal feed and coal imports. They can get their product that much further inland and the recepients, be they wholesalers or, in case of animal feeds and fertilisers, the agricultural co-operatives, would appear to want to get that product as close to their warehousing and storage as possible. The disadvantages of a tidal river, as the Senator described, are that heavily laden ships must come and go on the tide. Again, I pay compliment to both the chief executive and the pilots of New Ross Port Company because in the past they have always been more than co-operative in ensuring those ships can move with the tides and get their loading done to their best advantage.