Noel Harrington (Cork South West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the delegation and thank them for their interesting submission. As stated, 90% of goods moving in and out of this country come through our ports. This means the manner in which ports operate is important to the overall national trade picture. Was analysis carried out of the impact of the charging structure in ports on the overall transport costs for Ireland? I acknowledge that is a very broad question and may be difficult to answer but I would welcome any information the witnesses can provide in that regard.

On the submissions received by the authority, did any of them raise the issue of the impact of increased competition on safety in ports or on industrial relations? I share the delegation's concerns in relation to the long leases issue in respect of the terminals and stevedores. Leases of 20 years in such a restricted market are quite lengthy. I take the point that competition is not always around the corner and people are not always readily available to carry out that work. I am interested in hearing the delegation's views on intra-terminal competition within our ports and on performance related targets for stevedores. It is disappointing that the only statistics to which the authority can look in the context of the performance of stevedores is performance indicators over the past ten years, which means it could be copperfastening poor performance over ten years. It cannot be beyond the authority to find some international ports with best practice or that have achieved what could be regarded as best practice. I submit that that would be a more appropriate way of looking at performance targets for stevedores.

I believe short term rolling leases, under which security not alone for the companies but the State could still be guaranteed, might be more appropriate than 20 year leases, including 20 year leases with automatic options to renew. This issue needs to be addressed. Many of the savings that can be achieved will come from larger vessels carrying larger loads but not necessitating larger ports. How will this impact on competition? While it might drive economies of scale in the short term, is there a longer term impact? Has the authority looked at any of the European initiatives introduced in this area? For example, would the Marco Polo and Motorways of the Sea initiatives, which encourage states to transport goods by sea rather than road, which initiatives are largely driven by carbon emissions targets and so on, improve our ports' ability to do business?