Pat Gallagher (Donegal South West, Fianna Fail)

Gabhaim buíochas leis an Seanadóir as ucht deis a thabhairt dom an cheist thábhachtach seo faoi Bhaile Átha Cliath agus an tír go hiomlán a fhreagairt.

Senator Morrissey will be aware that Dublin Port Company is a State-owned company established under the 1996 Harbours Act. The Act provides that the company is required to take all proper measures for the management, control, operation and development of its harbour. As part of this mandate, the future development of Dublin Port is primarily a matter for the company and its board.

Dublin Port is the country's premier port in terms of throughput and turnover and, as such, is of vital strategic importance to our trading economy. We are victims of our own success as we would not be having a debate on providing additional capacity but for the policies implemented by this Government and the previous Government going back to 1997, with economic growth of almost 5% each year over all those years. All of us are delighted to have this debate and have this difficulty rather than problem. The port is important as it handles approximately half the State's seaborne trade, including 76% of the ro-ro trade and 59% of the lo-lo trade.

When I was in the Department of Communications, Marine and Natural Resources and before the Department of Transport took over the relevant responsibilities, I published the ports policy statement in January 2005. That aimed to better equip the port sector and its stakeholders to meet national and regional capacity and service needs. It recognised that one of the key challenges was the provision of adequate in-time port capacity, especially for unitised trade. I would be the first to recognise the importance of planning in advance because it takes some years of a lead-in to provide additional capacity and cater for the going trade and economic growth.

Last October, my Department published the broad conclusions of a study commissioned to determine whether national port capacity requirements for unitised trade could be met adequately by a combination of projects being planned and progressed by the ports sector. As part of this study, submissions were received from the seven ports around the country with expansion plans, including the Dublin Port Company, which outlined proposals to increase capacity at some of its existing container terminals and to build new terminals as part of its intention to reclaim 21 hectares of foreshore. This proposal would require planning permission and permission under the Foreshore Acts. When I was a Minister of State at the Department of Communications, Marine and Natural Resources, I authorised the necessary letter to the Dublin Port Company to allow it to prepare for planning.

Given the scale of investment required by such a development, my Department would expect to receive a detailed business case, which would be necessary despite the fact that the ports have a statutory basis. When investments are requested, the Department has the responsibility to know the details.

The national spatial strategy identifies the strategic merit in relieving the pressures on Dublin Port, of which I am well aware, through targeted interventions in building up port capacity elsewhere. The recent capacity study concluded that all the projects presented to us are generally consistent with the objectives of the strategy. The projects are located in or close to the five main gateway towns and six of the seven are outside Dublin city.

I understand that Dublin City Council has engaged consultants to carry out a wide-ranging economic, amenity-recreational and environmental study of Dublin Bay, including the port area, to identify a guiding framework for its future overall development. Currently, the consultants are carrying out a stakeholder consultation, to which the Department of Transport is contributing.

I wish to draw the attention of the House and Senator Morrissey in particular to the recently published National Development Plan 2007-2013, which proposes a comprehensive study of the role of Dublin Port, taking account of locational considerations, in the context of overall ports policy in Ireland, wider transport policy, urban development policy, the national spatial strategy and national economic policy. It refers to the difficulties that could arise in the form of containers that are unable to pass through the tunnel, but it also recognises that the maximum height limit is 4.6 m and that there is a wash-out period for taller containers.

These factors must be taken into consideration before a final decision can be taken. The review will take full account of the findings of the study being carried out by the city council. I am sure that Senator Morrissey and his colleagues on the Joint Committee on Transport will desire to make an input and that they will have an opportunity to do so.