Neale Richmond (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

There has, rightly, been a lot of discussion about flooding. Those of us living in Dublin-Rathdown are extremely grateful to the OPW, working in partnership with the local authority, for the remediation works on the Slang and Dodder rivers. It made a huge difference to the local community.

I want to move to my hobby horse, namely, the post-Brexit situation and the need for continued capital investment. I would like to dig through a couple of things regarding the work the OPW has done, is doing and will do, in particular when it comes to our ports. I would appreciate if the Minister of State could go through and elaborate on the work that has been carried out in Dublin Port and Rosslare Europort, in particular.

Figures released to me by the Minister, Deputy Ryan, last week show there has been a 150% increase in direct shipping from Ireland to our largest market, which is continental Europe. There has been a significant decline in goods being shipped to Great Britain or through the land bridge. I refer to the feasibility of our ports, including Rosslare, Dublin, Cork and Foynes, which is close to the Minister of State's part of the world, and others. I say this in the context of their ability to cater for new and larger shipping containers on existing routes and the expansion into new routes, and the potential of there being more routes across the Continent. This is vitally important to exporters of all hues in this country, be it people shipping pharmaceutical goods, importing plant machinery, as the Minister of State mentioned the OPW is doing, or exporting pharmaceuticals and medical devices.

With regard to those new routes and the improvements that are needed within the ports, that also includes approach roads to the ports. I can think of Rosslare Europort and the ability for lo-lo shipping to use train lines. I would appreciate if the Minister of State could deal with those areas.