Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I compliment Deputy Browne on tabling this question, on which I want to make a brief supplementary contribution. If there are difficulties in the UK land bridge, and the Minister acknowledges there will at least be short-term difficulties, there will be long queues to board ships in Dover and other places. We need to have more direct connectivity from the island of Ireland to continental Europe. I am not surprised that some ferry companies have indicated they do not want Government intervention because some of them operate on close to a monopoly basis. We must not depend exclusively on Dublin because if there is a difficulty with access to Dublin Port, there will be huge difficulty with getting goods off and on this island. Has the Minister had discussions in government or with the Minister for Finance in relation to Ireland Strategic Investment Fund, ISIF, support for new ferry links directly from Rosslare to alternative ports on continental Europe?

See this speech in context