Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)

I assure the Deputy there will be real consultation and input from users, stakeholders, the local community and the staff in respect of the master plan. That is the point of the master plan. We will launch the master plan consultation in the coming weeks. Everyone will be invited to participate.

In respect of ports, the McCarthy report recommends that they be consolidated into three port companies - Dublin, Cork and Shannon Foynes - and that privatisation be considered at a later stage. The Government is considering the McCarthy report and has made no decision on it. It will be further down the line before the Government is in a position to publish its views on the recommendations of the McCarthy report. That is under discussion at departmental and Cabinet level and it would be wrong of me to prejudice the outcome of those discussions and deliberations. The restructuring of the port is in no way connected to any possible privatisation in the future. The restructuring is taking place because the port needs to match its expenditure with its income. It is a port company and a business that must match expenditure with income. That is why the workforce is being reduced from 42 to 26 and why there are discussions at the LRC. The LRC is the right place for that work to be done on how further savings can be made.

Deputy Boyd Barrett referred to people who were previously civil servants. They have special protection under the Harbours Act but it is up to the Minister for Finance to make a determination on their tenure, under section 39(3) of the Harbours Act, after consulting me. No process has commenced in that respect. Those who were previously civil servants and transferred to the port company did not have the pension levy or the public sector pay cut applied to them in the way it was applied to current public servants.

See this speech in context