Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

On the company law point, that is true, but the bottom line is that it still falls back on the council either way. Even if, technically, the liabilities do not transfer directly to the council, ultimately, it will still pick up the tab if anything goes wrong. It will be the guarantor of everything. Have we not learned this at a macro level? When we give guarantees and so on, we end up picking up the tab. Even if the corporate subsidiary model prevails, the capacity of Dún Laoghaire Harbour Company to raise money will be substantially dependent and contingent on the fact that Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council is standing behind it. We will pick up the tab if anything goes wrong. I do not see the difference, except that in the corporate subsidiary model we take the risk, but we do not have as much say about the plans. In the model we are advocating the public would still be the ultimate financier, but they would have a more direct say on what we would invest in and the development plans and priorities for the harbour and the way it was run. It would be more transparent, accountable and democratic to do it in that way.

On the Minister's point about public ownership and other pieces of infrastructure, we could have a general ideological argument, but let us not go there now. In the case of Dún Laoghaire Harbour, although the Bill relates to other harbours also, where there is pressure to come up with development proposals and finance them, one way to do it would be to bring in private partners. I think that is what the Minister is leaving it open to doing. If private partners are brought in, they will begin to have a significant say about what goes at the harbour. Otherwise they would not put the money in.

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