Darren O'Rourke (Meath East, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses for their presentations. I wish them all well in their endeavours. I am sure they are in competition with each other, but from our perspective we would all like to see some degree of co-ordination and a successful outcome for the State and the country as a whole. I will direct my questions to Mr. O'Reilly. He has outlined the scale of the challenge. It seems quite a spectacular one in terms of the level of transformative change needed at the port. He says he would prefer staggered arrival times rather that the ships coming in on top of each other. At the other end we hear from hauliers and shipping companies criticising the current traffic management systems. There are issues relating to the vehicle booking system and the IT systems for pre-clearance, which are not actually in existence at some of the ferry companies.

My question relates to modelling and what we can expect to see on 1 January. This idea of potential traffic chaos, of lorries doing a loop around the M50 and the port tunnel, will worry a lot of people. What modelling has Dublin Port done and what is the expectation there? As regards what it is asking of the Government and this committee, what does it need us to hear to support it in its role in preparation for Brexit?