Ms Isolde Goggin:

I might ask Mr. Aylward to answer the specific questions on the intra-port competition, particularly looking at the European examples.

On the physical constraints, we had many meetings with the stakeholders. We had about 30 meetings before we did the consultation and had various meetings afterwards. We asked people for specific information, once we had firmed up on our ideas as to what to look for. We found that the different sectors are quite different in terms of the physical demands. In the case of a bulk transporter transporting very heavy stuff to a specific destination, the client wants to be as close as possible to where that is, for example, with Aughinish Alumina or Moneypoint. However, they also need good deep-water ports for the bulk transport.

In other cases, the end-to-end timing is much more crucial especially in the case of food and drink imports and exports, where people require short sea crossings.