Dr. Joseph Hiney:

There are two parties involved in working on those quays. It was quite successful during the summer when we had the vessels in the port during the festival. The fleadh is a much bigger proposition. I am aware that management and council officials are actively engaged on how to prepare for it. I certainly will do my best as chairman to keep it on the agenda and ensure we put our best foot forward because we are part of the community in Drogheda. I cannot speak to specifics of the budgets that will come out of that conversation but we have had great success with the projects we have done jointly with the council to date, including the recent opening of the small pontoon for leisure vessels and so on coming into the port. We want to continue along that path and improve the environs in Drogheda town.

It comes back to the fundamental issue of where ports go from here. We have to be very careful when we levy money on shipping that it has to cover the costs of servicing that shipping. They certainly are not keen on subsidising investments in the ports so under European legislation, we do have to ring-fence pots of money, as it were, to ensure there is no cross-subsidisation. We work hard on that particular issue.