Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The witnesses will be glad to hear that all of the Galway Deputies aread idemon the importance of Galway Harbour. We do not seem to be facing the difficulties experienced in Dún Laoghaire.
I become worried when the policies being developed are based on the status quo. It happened during our time in government and is happening again, in that policies are not drafted based on an objective analysis of balanced regional development, but to preserve and confirm the status quo. The problem is that, if one continues doing this, one doubles one problems. Dublin cannot handle everyone who is trying to live there. All of the jobs are in Dublin, but there are not enough housing or services. Other parts of the country could do with having extra people but are not getting any because they are not seeing development. We should be serious about balanced regional development and not base the future on historical events.
Due to the port gates and the fact that it is tidal, Galway Harbour cannot operate to the same capacity as a modern port. These are physical constraints. It is like having a large factory into which only tiny vans are allowed because its gates are not wide enough to take an articulated lorry. Obviously, one should widen the gates immediately to bring in the big trucks. Therefore, the port needs to be developed physically.
Interestingly, Killybegs is a fishing port, yet it is receiving cruise liners. We should not always limit initiatives to a predetermined Government plan for the future. Everyone accepts that human endeavour can often overcome considerable adversity and engender great success despite the prognoses of the Jonahs around the place.
Deputy O'Donovan's comments were interesting and left me pondering the Chairman. This is the same argument that we heard about Knock Airport, namely, that Knock and Shannon could not survive. However, Knock Airport has taught many people lessons in efficiency. If one is hungry enough and serves a large enough area, even if its population is dispersed, one can survive.
We should consider Galway Harbour's strengths. When the port is developed, one will be able to walk off a boat into the city centre. When we were considering this plan five or seven years ago, that aspect was a major attraction, as no one coming off a cruise liner would need to be bussed anywhere to access the city. Due to this factor and the attractiveness of Galway city centre, the port will be a magnet for cruise liners.
It has been interesting to note the hungry timber mills in the west importing timber through Galway and exporting timber that they cannot use. The port is exporting lime from Cong, County Mayo, to Scotland. This is an interesting case and works because there is not much lime in Scotland and bringing it from England by truck would cost more.
Many possibilities have been mentioned, but there is a common denominator - to use my comparison, if one cannot bring a truck in and is confined to using a mini-bus, one cannot get the business.

In my view, two competitive ports in the west of Ireland would only add to each other. We are always of the view in the west that if somebody gets something, somebody else cannot get it. We do not say, "Hang on, let us look logically at this. Let us look at the size of the area we are talking about." The length of a straight line up the west coast - I am not talking about all the indentation - from north Donegal to the south coast is one and a half times the length of the east coast. That is a fact. I was looking at distances by road. It is 169 km from Belfast to Dublin; 154 km from Dublin to Rosslare; 117 km from Rosslare to Waterford; 120 km from Waterford to Cork; 107 km from Cork to Foynes and 131 km from Foynes to Galway, which is longer than Waterford to Cork, Cork to Foynes or Rosslare to Waterford. It is 273 km from Galway to Derry, which is the next nearest port up the west coast. If one eliminates Foynes to Galway, one is talking about 400 km to Derry. We need a port on the west coast and Galway is the major city there.
Unfortunately, I cannot wait for the reply, in which I am very interested, as we have another bit of business that we are all being called to from Galway. Galway is very busy today. As Deputy Kyne said, the major point is that some of the issues are policy ones, including whether Galway should be a potential tier 2 port. I understand it is a policy to get EU grants for the development of the port. Those are policy issues as opposed to legislative ones.
My next issue is what proposals there are in the legislation that will be inimical to the interests of Galway. Do the witnesses think it is a good idea to transfer Galway from a semi-State company under the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport to being a body under the control of the local authority? If they do, why do they think that when nobody is suggesting transferring the other major ports to local authority ownership? It seems to me that in making the decision the Government is of the view that there is no future for local authorities except to do small things and the big future is for the few remaining ports which will all be on the south west to east coast. I would be interested to hear whether the witnesses think the transfer is a good idea. If it is not, we should hear that from them.
I often remember that many years ago we were handling about 20,000 tonnes of timber under the ECC, with which the witnesses will be familiar. I remember the forestry people saying that 30,000 tonnes was too ambitious. They wanted at that time to preserve the status quo. The view was that the guys who were there were fine, but no one should be allowed in to compete. That mill is now at 300,000 tonnes. We are getting timber. It is not right, therefore, to allow a policy to develop to preserve a status quowhich seems never to see that there is potential and energy there that will defy all the odds and be highly successful if a level playing pitch is created. If we do not have that belief, we will never develop the country in a fair, balanced way for the good of both the east and west coasts. The way we are developing will lead to so much weight on the east coast that it will fall into the Irish Sea eventually. Everything is being pulled to this side of the country. As someone who grew up in Dublin and who has a great love for this city, I note that many of the amenities I knew in the city growing up have been destroyed by overly rapid expansion out into some of the fantastic recreation areas that used to exist beyond Stillorgan. Those places are now all brick, mortar and tar. It would have been better for Ireland if we had more balanced development and we should not pull back from it now.