Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I have spoken to the Minister, Deputy Ross, on a number of occasions about this issue, and he has spoken to Dublin Port about it. Dublin Port has a job to do in terms of running its port efficiently, and it has been put under quite significant pressure in terms of capacity in recent months, linked of course to Brexit. In my view it has done a very good job on that. It also has an obligation, however, as the main port of destination for cruise liner business. It is linked with other ports around this island, and therefore the decisions it makes have significant knock-on consequences for ports such as Cork and Belfast. It has an obligation to work collectively with those other ports to be consistent with our national policy of supporting cruise liner traffic, and it must be factored into its plans. Dublin Port faces short-term challenges in the next couple of years in terms of infrastructural investment, but I expect that it will give a medium-term commitment to increasing cruise liner traffic again.

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