Ms Philomena Poole:

To look back to 2013 when the ports policy was first mooted, at that time there was a call for comment from a number of bodies. Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council was one of the bodies which made a submission. In common with the other local authorities with ports, we stated that it should be a separate legal entity for a number of reasons. It would avoid any TUPE or HR issues and it was also good to retain a commercial focus, particularly in relation to the cruise business and the town as a developing town and, indeed, the region. As such, being a separate entity, the employees will not transfer to the local authority and will remain as part of the board's responsibility. The due diligence process which is about to be initiated and which will be done through the transition group is the mechanism for declaring any issues that may come up whether of a commercial, financial or legal nature. They will have to be addressed either prior to the mechanism for taking over or there will have to be a mechanism to address them in the future. They cannot just be exposed and left there if there are any. Whichever mechanism is chosen, whether it is a reserved or executive function, we would simply say as a local authority that there needs to be clarity. We need to not be caught in ambiguity when there are very significant decisions to be made in relation to the port. That would just be our call that there be clarity about whether they are executive or reserved functions.