Barry Ward (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)

Gabhaim buíochas leis an Aire Stáit as ucht a bheith anseo don cheist thábhachtach seo. There are heritage harbours all over the coast of Ireland. They are extremely valuable historical and heritage assets. I want to talk about the one that is local to me, which is Dún Laoghaire Harbour. It is moer than 200 years old and it celebrated its bicentenary a couple of years ago. It is a Victorian harbour of immense proportions but also of immense importance. Its heritage value does not just involve the hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of people who left Ireland's shores for the last time on their way to Britain, or the other historic events that are linked to it such as the sinking of great ships like the RMS Leinster. Its importance goes beyond its physical aspects. It is a very beautiful and very large harbour.

The harbour was put into private ownership, albeit in the ownership of the State, through a company in 1992. That company was dissolved on 3 October 2018. Sole custody of the harbour was given to the local authority, Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council. I was in favour of that at the time. I was a member of the council at the time. I thought it would be much better run if it were in the hands of those who are elected locally because the reality is that the Dún Laoghaire Harbour Company to a large extent ran that harbour into the ground. It did not have an adequate revenue stream but the company was run like a Fortune 500 company. Once Stena Line decided it was no longer going to offer ferry services from Dún Laoghaire, which was announced in 2015, the revenue stream was cut off and the investment in what was a very valuable but precious harbour stopped. A list of infrastructure issues have arisen from that. In 2018, at the point when the Department of Transport handed it over to Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council, there was an estimated €33.1 million infrastructural deficit in relation to the harbour. I remember at the time issues about the structure of the East Pier. We know that subsequently in a storm - maybe five years ago - massive damage was done to the pier, which has been repaired. We also know that the historical sun shelter on the East Pier has been taken down. Only now is Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council telling me that it is going to appoint contractors to put it back up. The Carlisle Pier, from which the mail boat left and the RMS Leinster left on its last journey in 1918, is so unstable that one cannot park cars on it, yet we draw our naval ships up next to it when they visit Dún Laoghaire Harbour. I hope that very soon an announcement will be made that the Naval Service will return on a more permanent basis to Dún Laoghaire Harbour.

The issue is that these are heritage harbours. They are not really commercial going concerns. They are not going to pay the rent or wash their faces. They need investment from the State. I want the Minister of State to commit to a scheme from central government to support the existence of these enormously important heritage assets that preserves them and protects them, and makes sure the infrastructure will not deteriorate over time for the lack of investment. The way the Government approached this in 2018 was to hand it lock, stock and barrel to the local authorities. This happened all over the country. They did so with an accounting trick with Dún Laoghaire Harbour where they deemed the East Pier to be an asset because it is a physical thing, but in reality it was a liability. There was an expectation on the local authority. A small local authority like Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council, which is often seen as very wealthy but is in fact the smallest of the Dublin local authorities and the poorest in real terms, would never have the resources to properly maintain this harbour. Can we acknowledge that we need a funding stream to maintain them, that they are worth maintaining, and that they are important heritage assets from their history, their design and the engineering feats that they are? Can we recognise that this funding stream has to come from a scheme paid for by central government, a scheme that will realise their value not just for the local people but for the whole country and its heritage.

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