Patrick O'Donovan (Limerick County, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

It is worth noting that when Brexit kicked off, the Departments of Foreign affairs and the Taoiseach asked the OPW to take on responsibility for putting in place infrastructure at Dublin Port, Rosslare Europort and, specifically and to a lesser degree, Dublin Airport. It did so within a very short time and under budget. It handed back the infrastructure to the relevant authorities. They are pieces of infrastructure worth seeing in terms of their scale, size and complexity and how they operate. A multiplicity of agencies are involved, including Revenue, the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine and other officials. It shows what the OPW can do when it is charged with doing something in an emergency situation, which is what the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform did in terms of looking at Brexit as an emergency. The OPW took on the difficulties involved and, to a degree, the planning situations that would be confronted were circumvented. The OPW was given a role, and turned around the project.

Ongoing work will be needed at Rosslare Europort. The OPW has purchased and developed a 17-acre site in close proximity to the port. A border control post at Dublin Airport has been completed and is operational. As of 31 December, approximately €62 million had been spent, with a further €29 million profiled for 2021. Since January 2019, the OPW has completed 28 individual projects across 24 sites at three locations.

The Deputy is right about other Brexit-related projects. There may be opportunities for other ports that are not already profiled, but that will have to be decided by the Departments of the Taoiseach, Foreign Affairs and Finance and by the Revenue Commissioners. If they deem it necessary, the OPW will carry out those projects. In recent years, we have shown that there is a blueprint for doing so and that there is no need for the State to look beyond State agencies. I am keen for the OPW to demonstrate that there is capacity within the State in terms of engineering profiling and that we as a State agency can do more in the delivery of large-scale infrastructural projects. Brexit proved that the State can often be confronted by various issues, not all of which are necessarily Brexit related, that we have the in-house capacity to handle. If opportunities at other airports or ports present themselves as the Brexit scenario unwinds, that will be a call for the Department of the Taoiseach to make in the first instance. To answer on behalf of the OPW, however, the OPW would be in a position to take on that job.

Rosslare Europort is a developing port. It has managed in recent months to get additional capacity into and out of Belgium and France. That is welcome. We are working with it and Wexford County Council, through the council's CEO, Mr. Tom Enright, and will continue doing so.