Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

Will the Minister say what plans have been made to improve the investments in ports, particularly Dublin, Rosslare and Cork, over and beyond what is contained in the Ireland 2040 document? Notwithstanding all of the publicity around it, the document does not really explain in detail what the proposals are. Post-Brexit, we must have far more direct transportation links between Ireland and the European mainland because, no matter what happens, there will be problems at French ports, in travellling through England, as has been the tradition, and we do not know how the Border issue will be resolved and where, in effect, the border will be. I accept that the European Union has shown goodwill towards Ireland in this respect, but we need to have it backed up by serious funding to improve our capacity to have direct shipments to mainland Europe, rather than have shipments via the United Kingdom.

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