Noel Ahern (Dublin North West, Fianna Fail)

There is a considerable range of routes and services at present. Over the past ten years or so the overall capacity has increased significantly. I accept the Deputy's comments regarding Stena. Many of these services are partially passenger based but they are also freight based. Politicians and other interested groups consider the tourism perspective and more people are probably flying in recent years and fewer going by sea routes. What keeps the businesses going around the year is the freight rather than passenger side of things. Roll-on, roll-off freight has probably declined less than lift-on, lift-off or other bulk traffic during the world recession. There is a big capacity of routes, although I accept passenger and car routes such as Dún Laoghaire or Dublin Port are not what they were. They are not as popular as they were ten years ago.

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