Paudie Coffey (Fine Gael)

As we are an island nation I call for a debate on the role of our commercial ports and the way they can contribute to both our regional and national economies. They are access and egress points for major imports and exports and it is important we would have a debate on their role and resources to determine how they will contribute to the economy in the future. There are initiatives such as the Gateway innovation fund and we need to know how the ports will be resourced through those initiatives. We also need to know how they will fit in to the national spatial strategy, the way the Government proposes to roll out the resourcing and the implementation of our ports and how that will fit in to our national development plan. I call for a debate on that because this is an important issue for the entire country. Belview Port in the south east is a major international port but it must be continuously resourced. We must exploit the full potential of our ports to ensure the economy remains strong in the future.