Dr. Joseph Hiney:

That is the point. We must engage with the consultation process. We cannot just say, "Here's our plan, take it or leave it". That is not what we want to do. We have ideas and have explored scenarios but that is all that they are at this point. The Chairman is correct to point out that I said in my opening remarks that it is a sensitive and beautiful part of the country. We cannot just move the port anywhere. If we want to expand, for example, what happens on Tom Roe's Point? Even expanding by a few metres on either side is problematic. If we want to get larger vessels in, we have to talk about training walls and deepening the entrance to the harbour. These are all issues that need to be addressed if we are to accommodate the traffic that is natural to the region. One of the features of the dry bulk logistics chain is that one wants to bring the cargo as close as possible to its home. One could bring a container into Dublin and drive it to Donegal or Kerry.

However, the relative cost of dry bulk for road transport means that one wants to be closer to one's destination or origin. Drogheda can fill that niche market efficiently and in an environmentally compliant way.

We do not have a view. It is about first looking at how we can use the existing sites more intensively. It is responding to the demands in terms of the town quays and asking what we can do better. Could we move and rehabilitate work with the local authority to do more in the town quays? Theoretically, the answer is "Yes", but that raises the obvious question of where we put that trade and those assets.