Mr. Brendan Newsome:

With regard to what is holding us back, if I could wave a magic wand and get rid of Dublin Port, it would solve half of our problems because we could improve our business dramatically. However, that is not going to happen. I am not aware of anything that is holding us back at present. The stevedoring company protects the company from the point of view that it is not a cost or burden on the company. It has resolved the employment issue with the dockers. It deals with that and we do not employ dockers in the port. The stevedoring company pays the people to drive the fork-lifts, cranes, carriages, lorries and so forth. It is a very go-ahead company. There are people who would say it is not able to deal with it because they do not get on with it but that is not my experience. My experience of the company, especially the stevedores of R. F. Conway & Company Limited, is that they are very co-operative. They will deal with any new business, niche or otherwise.

The statistics from 2007 to 2012 refer to the capacity, which Deputy Doyle mentioned. We are way down, at about 70% or 80% less, on 2007. One could take the 2007 figure, multiply it by two and consider that our capacity. We have a long way to go to get back to the 2007 level and I do not wish to give anybody the impression that it is going to happen this side of the recession being resolved, because it will not happen in that timeframe. However, as a competitive company, we are ready to pick up once the recession starts to be resolved and if Europe is kind in giving us some money for our bank debt, we should move forward. I have no doubt that the will and energy are there, and it is my intention to move forward. My own business, which is in the port area, is a multiple of the size of the port in terms of financials, sales and so forth, but the same principles apply whether one's company is large or small. As I always repeat, one does not need to be a rocket scientist. One must control and preserve one's balance sheet and cash so one is not running to the bank, which will more than likely give one a Harvey Smith and say it has no money. That is my gospel and I stick to that when running my business.