Mr. Ciarán Aylward:

On performance measures in respect of stevedore licences, which matter is under consideration in Europe, among the factors that must be looked at are efficiency measures such as the number of lifts per hour versus the number of staff employed, tonnage per hour, ship turnaround times and so on. As mentioned by Ms Goggin, comparison between ports of efficiency measures for stevedores is difficult because ports do different things. For example, Shannon-Foynes Port is largely bulk operated while the Port of Waterford is largely lo-lo operated. It is akin to trying to compare apples and oranges. In the context of performance of stevedores, we are considering benchmarking their performance over a ten year period to see if there have been improvements. It is not perfect but it is a start. The Irish Maritime Development Office, IMDO, which comes under the remit of the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport, is gathering the statistics in this regard. As this is a matter relevant to that Department's national ports policy, it is an issue it needs to address.