Mr. Des Whelan:

We worry, obviously, that Brexit might drive the country into recession. Leaving that aside, the Suir is one of the fastest flowing rivers in Europe so it silts and it costs quite a small port company more than €1 million a year. One of our major challenges is the pension deficit the port had. At one stage, it was more than €10 million. It is down to a little over €1 million now and we hope to wipe it clear this year. This will give us some cash to do lots of things we should been doing over the past ten years in terms of facilities. As always, we have many challenges but we see quite a bright future for the port. As Ms Hynes and Mr. Cawley have said, there needs to be positive discrimination towards the regions in everything, including tourism and transport. Our area has been neglected over the past five or ten years but right now there is a good story to tell about Port of Waterford.