Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

It is worth pointing out that Dublin Port is now a very lean operation; it has only approximately 100 staff. Effectively, the port is now a landlord and estate management company. The terminals are operated by three different private companies, all of which are competing with one another. I am satisfied with the level of internal competition in the port. I do not recognise any major need for increased competition at the port, although I acknowledge that the Competition Authority makes some valid points about the length of leases. In some cases, they are very long. The authority's view is that leases for as long as 90 years are inappropriate.

At the same time, we all know about property rights and I suspect it would be very hard to untangle those leases. Even when it comes to issuing more licences, and the port is open to doing that, one would have to ask where those additional people would base themselves on the port estate. I do not know how that will work out.

As regards the national ports policy, I refer to the view of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions on our national ports policy, which is the Government's policy, not the Competition Authority's report, which is a different thing. It states that ICTU welcomes the broad thrust of the policy. With regard to the regulation to which the Deputy referred, ICTU says its understands that this regulation is now under active consideration. It says that it has studied the proposed regulation and at this point does not see any policy emerging that is likely to result in the requirement to fundamentally change the organisation of the ports in the Republic of Ireland. It has asked the European Transport Workers' Federation to keep it up to speed on any emerging developments so that it might offer a further view on this matter.

We remain engaged with ICTU on this issue. There is no agenda from the Government to drive down terms and conditions or wages at the port.

See this speech in context