Mr. Maurice O'Gorman:

In response to the question about access to finance, being designated under the national ports policy as a port of regional significance, we have limited access to State and EU funding but we have had several discussions with private investors about helping to develop the port. We believe the finance could be made available. To answer Deputy Barry, again there is no plan to sell the port. There would be no plan whatsoever to sell any part of it. The plan is to develop it on a build-operate-transfer basis.

I did apply through the Public Appointments Service, PAS. It was very good, very quick, much quicker than I thought it would be. The interview process was excellent. I have many people to thank for motivating me to apply but I will not go through the list. I was encouraged by people in Galway.

On planning for Brexit, I agree with Mr. Mullins that when there is a strategy and something changes radically it is necessary to go back and reconsider ports policy to see how this impacts on all these issues, particularly ports because 90% of our goods come in and out by the ports. We definitely need to re-examine that. I understand from the Department that the scheduled review is not due to take place until 2021. It would be appropriate to review the ports.

In response to Deputy Murphy's question about traffic, I would say, having come here by taxi today, the problems in Galway are very limited compared to those in Dublin. It took an incredible length of time to get across a small part of the city this morning.

The plans for the port would be to move most of the freight by rail. There is a rail link adjacent to Ceannt Station. We plan to bring the railway line to the end of the port, parallel with the berths. Goods could be unloaded directly onto the freight trains and move off. We hope tourists coming in on cruise ships will walk across because the port is in the centre of Galway city and they could enter the medieval area there. Our plans are not for increased road traffic but we have drawn plans for a new road which could go out through Renmore and link up with the motorway. We could not build the road but we have drafted plans around that, should we see a need for increased traffic on it.

I agree with Deputy Fitzmaurice, Galway Port is a key part of infrastructure for Galway and for the west of Ireland. If we do not secure planning permission for it the port will decline because ships are getting bigger. The port can support ships of up to only 5,000 tonnes and many companies do not have ships of that size. We import petroleum and the petroleum shippers have said they want to scale up to 12,000 tonnes. If the port declines that will affect any future plans for aquaculture and anything to do with energy on the west coast. It is vitally important and we submitted our planning application in 2014.

We have a long process ahead of us.

I hope I have responded to all the questions.