Mr. John Mullins:

Tá mé an-sásta a bheith anseo maidin inniu chun cuntas Phort Chorcaí a thabhairt don choiste. I would like to make a brief presentation on the achievements of the Port of Cork in the five years since my previous appointment in March 2013 until 21 December 2017. I would like members to go through the document because it is in presentation format. I would like to present my credentials and vision for the Port of Cork at this session this morning. I stand before the committee seeking re-appointment to the position of chairman of the Port of Cork Company for a period of three years from 1 March. I will firstly introduce myself to the committee and then present the salient challenges and opportunities facing my intended stewardship of the board of the Port of Cork.

I was born in Cork nearly 50 years ago in 1968 in the south inner city to Patrick and Maureen Mullins. My father spent his life as a painter-decorator for Cork City Council and my mother was well occupied with five boys of which I am the eldest. I was educated in North Monastery primary and secondary schools and then went on to study electrical engineering in University College Cork. I completed a bachelor's degree in 1989 and was awarded graduate of the year in UCC in 1989. I also studied a master's degree in electrical engineering. In 1997, I graduated from the Smurfit Business School in UCD with a first-class honours MBA.

I started my career with ESB - Mr. O'Rourke is a former colleague of mine - and am very thankful for the very fine career foundation I received there. I worked as a senior consultant in PwC in London specialising in the communications, energy, water and transport division. In 2000, I returned to Ireland to work with ESB International where I worked with Mr. O'Rourke on projects in Poland and project managed and commercially negotiated ESB's largest external investment in Amorebieta in the Basque region of Spain. In 2002, I joined NTR and worked with all of the companies in the group - Toll Roads, Greenstar, Celtic Anglian Water, Bioverda and Airtricity. I left NTR in 2007 to take up the position of chief executive officer in Bord Gáis Eireann.

My time in Bord Gáis Eireann was immensely enjoyable and challenging. My period was marked by significant diversification of the company, in particular into electricity with the Big Switch. The company has since split in three and significant parts were privatised and now trade as Centrica's Bord Gáis Energy and Brookfield Renewable Energy, which I am proud to say is now based in Cork and is the head of Brookfield's pension fund out of Cork for Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

Along with partners, I founded Amarenco Solar in 2013 and since then, we have grown the company to over 50 employees in Ireland, the UK and France. With partners, Amarenco has invested over €300 million in solar technology in France. I hope to invest well over €100 million in Ireland, primarily in the Cork region, by 2020. I am a fellow of Engineers Ireland and the Academy of Engineers of Ireland and hold board positions with Heneghan PR, Mainline Group and Wisetek. I am involved in the Cork Foundation, Anam Cara and Co-operation Ireland charities in the Cork region. I am a former president of the Cork Chamber of Commerce and received the title of Chevalier de la Legion d'Honneurin 2016 from the French President for services to French renewables.

I will deal with trade in the first instance. The Port of Cork has achieved throughput growth from 2013 to 2017 of over 10%. This is charted at the top of page 2 of the presentation. Regrettably, Lisheen Mine closed in 2015 leading to a 350,000-tonne reduction in throughput per annum which came through Tivoli in addition to a decline in Bantry tonnage in 2016. That was due to oil strategies in Zenith, which it took over from Phillips 66 in 2015. The total traffic volume is 10 million tonnes. We should be aware that the Port of Cork is responsible for about 20% of all the trade through ports in Ireland.

We have achieved significant growth with regard to financial performance over the five years. Turnover is now close to €30 million, while earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation is about €9.5 billion and operating surplus and dividends paid to the Minister total circa€3 million. In fact, the dividends have increased by a factor of 60% in that period annually. Our operating surplus has moved from €1.7 million in 2013 to €5.7 million in 2017. The closure of Lisheen Mine resulted in a loss of about €1 million worth of annual revenue in 2016 and 2017. These five-year trends are graphed in figure 1 on page 3.

The port has achieved significant growth in container traffic in particular primarily because of the upturn in the economy. In particular, there is a lot of industry in the Cork region that exports but we also have quite an amount of importation for domestic consumption as well. Measured in 20 ft. equivalent units, TEUs, we have an increase of about 28% in the period from 2013 to 2017 in TEU trade. In addition, the container-handling facilities at the Ringaskiddy deepwater terminal were also improved to enable the Port of Cork and the global shipping company Maersk enable a direct deep-sea transatlantic service to Ireland from South America and Cuba every Saturday to deliver practically all Fyffes bananas and pineapples for this country. It used to go through Rotterdam and then come by short-sea service to here so it now comes directly to Ringaskiddy in the only Panamax size container ship that arrives in Ireland at any time.

The Port of Cork has achieved significant growth in the number of cruise line calls in Cork. When we started in 2013, there were 61 calls. This year, we will have 96. This is replicated right across the country in all harbours and ports. Progress has also been made with cruise line calls to Bantry. I am proud to say that we will have eight calls in Bantry in 2018 - a mixture of Glengarriff and Bantry port.

We have had significant capital additions, including the Ringaskiddy development advanced works, costing €9.7 million. Regarding Bantry inner harbour development, we completed a brand-new marina and leisure area and we upgraded the pier for all the fishing, aquaculture and leisure activities and for the operation of the ferry to Whiddy. This cost approximately €9 million. The development was launched in August 2017 in west Cork. We put a new Liebherr LMH 550 crane in Ringaskiddy in 2014, costing about €3.6 million. We implemented a new automatic truck gate system, primarily because of congestion in the Tivoli area. That is a critical issue. Considering that container traffic has grown by 28%, there is significant truck movement on the Tivoli and the lower road. That is one the main reasons we are moving down to Ringaskiddy with the container terminal. The Cobh cruise terminal has been upgraded. We are now able to take the largest cruise liners in the world because of the natural water depth in Cobh. The largest cruise ships, which have about 6,500 passengers, are expected to come to Cobh in the coming years. Surfacing works at the existing container terminal at Tivoli had to completed. We have purchased cargo handling equipment.

The limitations of the facilities in Tivoli, which facilities have served Cork well, concern water depth, the width for vessel swinging, and landside terminal capacity. These limitations require the relocation of the container business downstream to the lower harbour at Ringaskiddy, where the depth of water is approximately 13 m, as opposed to approximately 6 m at Tivoli. Maritime traders want to enter and exit the harbour as quickly as possible. This will reduce the carbon footprint in the context of cruising up the harbour into the river. All the goods will be dispatched at Ringaskiddy and thus there will be no cruising through Passage West and past Blackrock into Tivoli. The port redevelopment will be beneficial to the port, port customers, the city, the wider Cork community and the region.

Full planning permission for critical-infrastructure port redevelopment at Ringaskiddy was granted in May 2015 by An Bord Pleanála following an efficient strategic-infrastructure oral hearing in September 2014. Revised phase-1 amended planning permission was granted on 8 June 2017. The company has therefore achieved planning permission for phase 1 of the Ringaskiddy development, which includes an optimised 360 m single berth, a straddle carrier operating system, and a new maintenance building for straddle carriers. Phase 1 will see the port relocate its container business from the current city centre Tivoli location to a new facility at Ringaskiddy. Figure 2 of my submission illustrates the difficulty associated with turning a ship in the River Lee. Dredging to keep the River Lee going costs around €500,000 per year. That is a significant cost to the port of Cork.The Ringaskiddy phase 1 development will be operational by 2020 and will include an optimised 360 m single berth, a straddle carrier operating system and some new maintenance buildings.

At a European level, the port of Cork is included within the new TEN-T regulation as a "core" port on the North Sea-Mediterranean corridor, along with being identified as a tier-1 port in the 2013 national ports policy. In line with this TEN-T designation, the port has secured funding under the TEN-T and the Connecting Europe Facility grant aid schemes for its Ringaskiddy developments.

PoCC was successful in 2013 with its funding application made under the acceleration or facilitation for the implementation of TEN-T projects. Grant aid of 50%, amounting to €1.8 million, was made available to obtain statutory consents for the Ringaskiddy development, complete financial and economic appraisals, detailed designs and communication plans, and prepare tender documentation.

PoCC submitted an application for TEN-T transport section CEF funding to the European Commission's Directorate-General for Mobility and Transport during 2015 following Department of Transport ,Tourism and Sport endorsement. The European Commission notified PoCC on 29 June 2015 that it had decided to allocate €12.74 million – or 17.5% of the eligible expenditure - to fund the construction of the proposed Ringaskiddy development.

Unfortunately, the February 2016 application made under the Motorways of the Sea scheme, in partnership with Dublin Ferryport Terminals and Belfast Harbour authorities to try to secure EU funding assistance for ship-to-shore cranes, straddle carriers and the gate operating system was unsuccessful. Re-engagement with Europe on BREXIT restructuring should be a policy priority so such applications will be positively viewed in the future.

In 2017 the company agreed a funding structure for the Ringaskiddy port redevelopment with the European Investment Bank, worth €30 million, with AIB, worth €30 million, and with the Irish Strategic Infrastructure Fund, worth €18 million. The company received the borrowing consent from the Ministers for Transport, Tourism and Sport and Public Expenditure and Reform on 14 December 2017 to proceed with the Ringaskiddy development. Legal documentation was then finalised, on 20 December 2017, in Dublin and the three facility agreements, the common terms agreement and the inter-creditor agreement were signed by all parties on that date. PoCC was then in a position to issue a letter of acceptance to BAM on 20 December 2017. We expect the commencement of works soon. It should be noted that we are engaged in a legal dispute with BAM as a contractor in this regard.

The Whitegate oil refinery accounts for over 55% of the port's overall cargo tonnage figures and accounts for 28% of the tonnage and goods income of PoCC. PoCC was very pleased to learn on 3 August 2016 that an agreement was reached with Irving Oil, a Canadian family-owned business, to purchase and secure the future of the Whitegate oil refinery. There were threats that it would close but we were very much part of the process of ensuring it would remain open.

The company entered into a joint venture with Lanber Holdings to purchase and redevelop Marino Point. Ownership of the joint venture company is split as follows: 60% Lanber Holdings and 40% PoCC. The purchase of Marino Point was completed on 2 June 2017. This site has lain fallow for the best part of 15 years. I refer to the old IFI site. There are significant specific projects intended for the site that will free up lands in the docklands of Cork for future infrastructural development.

OnBantry Bay port, the amalgamation and consolidation of the Bantry Bay Harbour Commissioners' assets with PoCC was completed on 1 January 2014, and a 100% subsidiary, Bantry Bay Port Company DAC, was created to manage the Bantry Bay operation. Following the unveiling of plans to develop Bantry Harbour in 2015, phase 1 of the Bantry inner harbour development, costing in the region of €9 million, was completed. The official opening ceremony of the Bantry marina development took place on 11August 2017. Completion of the Bantry inner harbour blueways kayaking trail was completed in 2016. This trail is the first of its kind in Munster.

PoCC secured planning permission in December 2014 for upgrading the cruise-berthing facilities in Cobh as part of a cruise vision to accommodate the cruise vessels of the maximum size. This investment of €1.5 million allows us to take in those vessels.

In 2017, the company purchased a site on Lynch's Quay in Cobh, as tenant in common with Cork County Council, for the purpose of future development to accommodate tourist and cruise-ship traffic and particularly to provide a new ferry terminal for tourists to visit the Spike Island facility. It is also to provide incremental opportunities for two cruise liners to arrive at Cobh at the same time.

I am chairman of the pension fund in PoCC. I inherited a deficit in the fund. In May 2014, we agreed with the Pensions Authority a funding programme to 2023 to make sure the defined-benefit pension fund stays whole, at a rate of at least 100%, for all past and present employees of the port.

In August 2017, PoCC welcomed to Cork a delegation from NextDecade Corporation, a liquefied natural gas, LNG, development company based in Houston, USA. NextDecade and PoCC had previously signed a memorandum of understanding to explore a joint development opportunity for a new floating storage regasification unit, FSRU, and associated LNG import terminal infrastructure in Ireland. NextDecade focused on one area within the harbour, west of Whitegate jetty, for this development. As an entry point into the Irish energy market, the port of Cork is an attractive location for an FSRU-based LNG import terminal. Surrounded by existing marine infrastructure and industrial facilities, the proposed site is less than 2 km from the Gas Networks Ireland grid at the Bord Gáis Energy plant in Whitegate.

Let me refer to the International Shipping Services Centre, or Cork city docklands.PoCC maintains its support for the Cork docklands redevelopment and intends playing a full role in ensuring that the development potential of the area is realised. PoCC management is in continual discussions with Cork City Council, assisted by the Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government, regarding the future operation of the city quays. The company is currently chairing a stakeholder group, including developers, the council, IDA and chamber of commerce, in proposing the concept of the international shipping services centre which would be, in the context of Brexit, an opportunity to provide back-office maritime, financial and IT support in the development of significant office blocks within the inner docklands area.

Following a detailed review of Ringaskiddy redevelopment funding and office options, the directors of PoCC decided that the Custom House property located at Custom House Quay in the centre of Cork docklands would be advertised on the open market for sale. One party expressed a keen interest in purchasing the property and the PoCC board of directors agreed to proceed with negotiations. An agreement for the sale of the Custom House to Tower Development Properties Limited – Time Square Construction and Development – was signed on 20 April 2017, subject to a number of conditions, including receipt of planning permission. Two buildings are listed. There are heritage clauses within the agreement to ensure the building will be open to the public and that there will be no changes internally or externally to the Custom House. It is appropriate for the port to have its people close to where it operates. That is the same in Dublin, Galway, Waterford and elsewhere in the country. We cannot be 20 km from where we operate. The reality is that this is an operational issue as much as a financial one for the company.

In anticipation of the future redevelopment of the Tivoli site, PoCC commissioned the Royal Institute of the Architects of Ireland to consider the potential future uses of this estate. The design review "New Perspective for Tivoli" was completed in early 2017. PoCC is satisfied that this review has created a series of innovative ideas for a site of 160 acres, demonstrating urban design based on brownfield regeneration projects in benchmark cities, and raised the potential of Tivoli among key stakeholders.

The final draft document was presented to the Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government and the Irish Strategic Investment Fund in July 2017. The future redevelopment of the Tivoli estate has the potential to play a key role in the financial security of the Port of Cork Company. It will also be key in the population 2040 drive in Cork city and will also be a brand new village on the north side of the river.

On Tuesday, 16 January 2018, Brittany Ferries announced a new route direct from Ringaskiddy, Cork to Santander in Spain using a new ship, MV Connemara. The service will make two return sailings a week and will be the first ever ferry service directly linking Ireland and Spain. This announcement came as Brittany Ferries celebrates its 40th year in Ireland. The popular Cork-Roscoff route opened on St. Patrick's Day in 1978 and has been serving Irish holidaymakers and haulage companies ever since. It has also brought millions of French passengers to Ireland, boosting the local and national economy. Discussions with Brittany Ferries this week indicate that the early bookings on that new ferry service are very strong.

The Port of Cork Company celebrated the 200th anniversary of Cork Harbour Commissioners in 2013 and published a book on the history of Cork Harbour Commissioners, Portraiture of Cork Harbour Commissioners. The Port of Cork Company and Cunard hosted a commemoration ceremony led by President Michael D. Higgins on 7 May 2015 in Cobh to mark the centenary of the sinking of the RMS Lusitaniaoff the Cork coast. During this five-year period the Port of Cork Company has regarded constant engagement with key customers and stakeholders including the local community as a key priority. Additionally Port of Cork Company is identifying and planning for the challenges and opportunities associated with Brexit. Likewise, Port of Cork Company is considering the implications of the full implementation of the European port services directive.

The key strategic objectives for the next three years are: complete the Ringaskiddy redevelopment; produce a Marino Point master plan; move port operations from the river to the sea; emphasise efficiency of service to all customers; prepare a master plan for Tivoli; and continue to grow the business for the betterment of the south of Ireland and the State.

I thank the Ministers for Transport, Tourism and Sport I have worked with - the former Minister and now Taoiseach, Deputy Varadkar, the Minister, Deputy Donohoe, and the Minister, Deputy Ross. I thank all the staff in the Department. I thank the CEO, Mr. Brendan Keating, and all the staff at the Port of Cork Company who do a fabulous job for us every day.