Mr. Eamonn O'Reilly:

As to what we expect, before coming here one does lot of thinking about what to say to a committee like this. Inevitably, one tends to focus on the challenges that are coming. Maybe what I should say is that I think Dublin Port is remarkably well-prepared for Brexit, given the scale of the challenge. The sheer physical infrastructure the OPW has put in and the amount of work done by customs and by the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine is enormous.

Reflecting on the comments I made, I was more worrying about the efficiency of what will happen rather than its effectiveness. The focus on efficiency comes from the sheer busyness of Dublin Port. It is an unbelievably busy port. It is two and a half times busier than the port of Rotterdam, based on the number of tonnes per hectare per annum. Likewise, it is also two and a half times busier than the port of Barcelona. The likes of that U-turning facility I mentioned must be understood in the context of contingency planning. All the UK is doing, as I see it, is planning for catastrophe with things like Kent passports and such. There is no doubt that there will be problems in January, but I believe the preparations that have been made will be effective and the types of contingency measures I set out are essential. Risk management is at the core of the industry. All of us within the ports are always looking at risk management and identifying contingencies. It would be bad if I came here today and was not able to answer the question of what happens if things go wrong.

The Deputy asked about vehicle booking systems.

We are developing Dublin Port. We have a master plan for 2040, though perhaps with the year ahead of us we should aim for 2041. The plan aims to double the volume of throughput on the same land footprint between now and 2040. That can only happen with an awful lot of digital technology. Brexit is accelerating the need for us to digitise Dublin Port. Very sophisticated systems are used to manage the internal operations of the three container terminals. We need an overarching system to manage the flow and traffic in and out of those terminals and the roll-on roll-off terminals. Nearly all of the land movement of goods in and out of the port happens during 60 hours of the week from Monday to Friday. It is still a very traditional working week. However, the ships come in and the terminals operate 24 hours a day. It is absolutely essential to push some of the activities of Dublin Port into the other 108 hours. That would give us access to the capacity of the Dublin Port tunnel and the national motorway network at times when it is not otherwise busy. That is the real challenge. We need digital technologies to do this. That will be a big focus of our future development.

In recent years our focus has been on concrete and steel. That will continue. In the last three years we have made €216 million worth of capital investment. Another €83 million of investment is planned for next year. The scale of investment in infrastructure in Dublin Port is absolutely enormous. That is necessary but not in itself sufficient. We also need to drive efficiencies through digital technologies. As I say, Brexit is really highlighting the need for this.