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

I thank Ms Goggin and her colleagues for their presentation. Their study is very important in terms of ascertaining the level of competition and how the ports are operating. At a time when Ireland is performing well when it comes to exports, any ideas or contributions towards improving that performance are worthy of consideration.

Traditionally, there have been very lengthy leases on many of our ports, which do not allow much scope for new operators to enter the fray. The delegates indicated that these leases should be reviewed. I am not sure how that might work and am very interested to hear the witnesses' thoughts in this regard. I assume operators would, in general, be very protective of their leases.

Wage structures, the workforce and the potential for job creation are not mentioned in the review, presumably because they were not part of the remit. There has been a great deal of discussion in recent times about the salaries being paid to chief executive officers in various organisations and management companies. Will the witnesses comment on that?

There is little or no mention of the potential for some of our ports to enhance their leisure facilities, which is another issue we have discussed in this committee. Will the delegates indicate whether they took account of that issue as part of their review?

Road and rail infrastructure is an issue that is raised regularly in the committee, particularly in the context of the inadequacy of access at certain ports. Does Ms Goggin have any ideas in that regard?

On the question of combining ports, I am not clear which particular ports might be considered suitable in that context. I do not doubt there is scope for more interaction between different ports, including shared management. I am interested to hear more from the witnesses on how such mergers might work. An issue that comes immediately to mind is that people are generally very protective of their own patch. How is it envisaged that different ports might operate together and what benefits are foreseen from such co-operation? Would those benefits be primarily monetary, for example, or would there also be benefits in terms of tourism?

There has been a great deal of talk about new ports coming on stream. For instance, a location near Drogheda has been mooted as suitable for a deep-sea port. Do the delegates have any ideas as to whether there is scope for new facilities in new locations?