Ms Isolde Goggin:

A question was asked about services. As Mr. Aylward said, we spoke to a large number of port users. They did not raise the issues of broadband or water services. I wonder whether these would be more relevant to the tier 3 ports, those designated by the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport as having a future more in the leisure industry rather than national and regional transportation. The point related to the question of a port selling itself. Some ports make good efforts in that respect but it was not quite the area of our study. We were asked to examine competitiveness, the cost of imports and exports, jobs and so on.

We examined the issue of leases but people did not raise upward-only rent reviews, which is a relatively recent phenomenon. Most of the leases have been in place for so long. They date back to the 1980s. Upward-only rent reviews are more recent and came in with the property boom. I am unsure whether they were a feature.

We did not examine the maintenance repairs business because we were not examining the shipping industry. One person raised that issue with us from a port on the east coast.