Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Before I respond in more detail to the point made by Deputy Boyd Barrett I wish to emphasise the following in terms of the current text that he has proposed be deleted. Section 9(1)(c)(i) clearly states that any disposal of shares cannot go ahead without "the consent by resolution of the elected council concerned." In a moment I shall outline my policy on some of the areas outlined by the Deputy. I fundamentally believe that if a port is now part of a local authority unit, in whatever way, then I agree that a decision on shareholding should only happen with the consent of local members. My belief flows from what I have said about a local authority structure being of benefit to some ports. Section 9(1)(c)(ii) states there is a requirement for "the approval of the Minister, given after consultation with the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government and the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform." Furthermore, any disposal of any capital, for whatever reason, can only be up to a maximum of 49% of the issued capital for that port.

The reason for such a provision is that I view ports and airports as important in their own ways for the development of our country. While the boards and offices of a port, at different points, may decide to raise capital or allow a minority stake to be disposed of to raise funding, I fundamentally believe that they should be in majority public ownership. That is why we have the further requirement in place that if a local authority's chief executive is lucky enough to dispose of a minority stake, or a portion of a minority stake, that it requires both the consent via a resolution of the local authority's members and the relevant Ministers. Overall, what we are looking to do here is to give flexibility to the ports in terms of how they might look to raise capital but we have been clear that the consent of both the local members and the Minister, for different reasons, are still required.

I understand where the Deputy is coming from but I believe that the safeguards that we have in place at the moment are robust. It is for that reason that I am not in a position to accept the Deputy's amendment.