Ms Isolde Goggin:

Deputy Ellis has raised several interesting questions. In terms of how leases might be changed, we are looking to Dublin Port Company to come up with ideas in that regard. The company has acknowledged that existing leases are too long but the reality, as the Deputy noted, is that contracts are in place and cannot not easily be altered. The company might certainly look at whether it would be possible to negotiate some changes to the leases. Even if their duration cannot be changed, we are strongly of the view that consideration should be given to building in performance measures. The operators might be obliged, for instance, to ensure quick turnaround times and the provision of a good professional service to users.

We did not look at wage structures and the workforce, but we do see scope for more companies to enter the sector. New entrants would, of course, be looking to grow jobs and employment. We have made recommendations regarding stevedoring licences, because what is there now seems quite restrictive and operators do not have the incentives they could have to grow competition.

The Deputy is correct that we did not look at the leisure industry, including cruise and passenger business. Our mandate was very much focused on competitiveness in the sense of jobs and exports and in the context of the Action Plan for Jobs. The cruise sector is growing, but many of its concerns are common to operators across all cargo types. Improvements to services in the ports will benefit cruise licence holders in the same way they benefit other operators. It should be noted that cruise vessels account for less than 2% of the total number of vessel calls to Irish ports. Passenger and tourist car numbers have been declining over the past decade. As with cruise operators, the same types of issues arise for passenger operators as do for all operators.

Mr. Aylward referred to the categorisation of ports as tier 1, 2 or 3, which is the classification system operated by the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport under its national ports policy. Tier 3 ports have been instructed to look at their tourism potential, leisure facilities and amenities for both larger and smaller vessels. This aspect, as I said, was outside of our competitiveness remit, which required us to focus on tier 1 and tier 2 ports because they are the ones of national and regional significance.

In regard to management structures, we did not look at that issue from the bottom up, but we did make recommendations that management be given a greater incentive and mandate to promote competitiveness by providing better services and seeking to attract more business.

The Deputy asked about amalgamations. Dublin Port took over Dundalk Port because, as I understand it, the latter was losing money. When it comes to amalgamations, the benefits are more in the back office end of things. Management and administration functions might be merged, but that will not make more ships call to Dundalk, for instance, if they are not going there for other reasons. We took into consideration the rationale for amalgamations, but we do not see them as being of critical importance in terms of promoting competition. In a situation where two adjacent ports come together, there might be a negative impact on competition. Normally when two companies with, say, a turnover of €40 million each seek to merge, there is an obligation on them to notify us of the proposal. We will give clearance or otherwise, generally within a month. Where particular issues arise, we can extend the period of consideration before coming to a decision. Our view is that it would be worthwhile to have a similar process for port mergers, even if they are below the threshold, in order to prevent mergers that might damage competition.

We did examine the proposed Bremore development north of Dublin and concluded that it could place more competitive pressure on Dublin Port. Under the national ports policy, no further Exchequer funding will be forthcoming, so this and any similar projects will be dependent on private investment, significant increases in trade and a capacity to attract container shipping lines away from Dublin Port. The current climate is not particularly conducive in terms of attracting people who are looking to make that type of investment. The Dublin Port tunnel and the new motorways have greatly improved access to Dublin Port in the past ten years, which makes the city more attractive for food exporters and others who are very sensitive to such factors as frequency of service, timing and so on. Dublin Port is well placed to serve the needs of the greater Dublin area. Looking through the competitiveness lens, our view is that the Government should focus first on enabling ports like Cork, Shannon and Waterford to develop more and better services and ensuring competition within Dublin Port is working as well as possible. These, in our view, are the priority issues at this time. In five or ten years, when the climate has changed, we might have a different view.