Mr. Glenn Carr:

Rosslare is rail connected but we also need to be developed outside of the port. We await the Waterford-Wexford line because that is the route we would go. Particularly when considering that Waterford Port, which is already rail-connected, Cork will be rail-connected, Shannon Foynes is being rail-connected and so on, we get that arc we are discussing, which has us connected into all the sea ports and is absolutely ideal.

From our perspective, with the offshore wind facility we are building, there are two issues we need to look at. First, the offshore wind hub will deepen Rosslare Europort. One of the restrictions now for some ships that may want to come to Rosslare is the fact that the depth is not there. The ORE project allows us to deepen to port to -11 m in the channel and a minimum of pockets of 9 m at our berth. That will also mean that we will be able to take ships that currently pass Rosslare into the port. However, land side, we have to have the space. The initial plan is that we would build two berths as well as for the ORE hub that will be easily transferable once the ORE heavy construction ends that would be easily transferable to lift-on lift-off, roll-on roll-off or ConRo. The land area that will be developed is in excess of 26 ha and we recently purchased an additional 18 acres of land beside that, taking into consideration that in the 2030s, when the heavy construction leaves us and moves around – and some of that will be with Cork as well as ourselves because our site will probably only produce approximately 2.2 GW of turbines – what we will have on the south east is a ready-made facility for lift-on lift-off and roll-on roll-off. At that point, our ambition is that we will bring the rail into that facility quayside and at that time we hope that the Waterford-Wexford line will be ready to go. Then Rosslare will be connected in there. It is absolutely in our plan but we need to be careful. We cannot be something to everybody and or initial focus for the site is for the ORE because Rosslare Europort has to be ready for 2027, and the first phases, for the farms planned. When the ORE goes, will we be left with a white elephant of a site? Absolutely not. Let us think of the pressures that are going to be on the south east coast and Dublin and when it is considered that we have deepened the port with two additional berths, we can take a lot of traffic in there that might not be able to be serviced in the most efficient way elsewhere. We will do a big part of that by rail, and having that connection both to Dublin and equally along the western lines, and up to Athenry, will see that line completed.