Dan Boyle (Green Party)

This Bill seeks to give statutory effect to the Government's port policy statement. The definition of a port policy statement can be taken to mean a statement of the port policy of the Government. I tend to think of it as a statement of the Government moving towards a ports policy, because it is an evolving policy area over several years and it is clear this Bill is an attempt to meet some of the gaps remaining.

The question of the dependence of an island nation on harbours is unanswerable, and the need to have a statutory effect to ensure they operate to their optimum level cannot be debated. The Bill answers many of the questions that need to be answered. The Harbours Act 1996 brought about changes from the old harbour commissioners system in larger ports, where port companies were established and a more commercial system was put in place. This allowed the evolution of a competition policy between many of the larger ports in the country. The existence of competition allows for more traffic for exports and imports, and thereby increases the viability of the ports.

Increasing the economic activity of the ports is an aim of Government policy in itself, but there are other areas we need to examine, such as the capacity of the ports that exist. The most supported port in terms of infrastructure is the Europort in Rosslare, the most under-utilised port in the country. Where is our policy going when we have substantial investment in major ports that are not utilised to their full capability?

When goods are imported and exported we should have a transport policy that identifies particular ports so the minimum impact on transport on the island is achieved. The problem with an open competition policy is that one is encouraging goods to be imported to or exported from Donegal and sent out through any of the ports in the country. That is not environmentally sound and does not make good economic sense. A harbour or ports policy should address these inconsistencies. The Bill moves towards that, but there is much work to be done, and I hope that will be done in the formation of a fully-fledged ports policy and in later legislation.

Many of the locations of existing ports do not meet modern needs. The ports themselves are developed, or they are relocated. In Cork there has been an attempt by the Port of Cork Company to achieve a relocation through the use of the Planning and Development (Strategic Infrastructure) Act 2006. It went through An Bord Pleanála and argued to move all its facilities to Ringaskiddy at the lower end of Cork Harbour. This failed, and one of the reasons for that was that — another lacuna in harbours policy — in terms of transport infrastructure, it should be an accepted fact that rail links are a prerequisite. It is economically stupid, as well as environmentally damaging, to develop new locations, in north Dublin or elsewhere, without an insistence on rail links as a matter of policy. I would like to see the development of a ports policy along these grounds.

As a nominated member of the Seanad, I am aware that while we are discussing the Harbours (Amendment) Bill 2008, we spend an undue amount of time on particular provisions and how they relate to local authority members. That cannot be unconnected to the fact that a large part of the electorate for most Members of this House are local authority members. I understand why Members feel the need to address those concerns. It is a distortion of what this Bill is about, and I ask that on Committee Stage the more important commercially and economically sensitive elements of the Bill are examined more carefully.

Most of the legislation that prohibits local authority members from membership of all State bodies and agencies needs to be reformed. If there is an expertise and skill in local government, it should be encouraged and people should be allowed to be appointed to such bodies. If legislation states that there should be a minimum participation of local government representatives, regardless of whether those skills exist in local authorities themselves, that is not in the interests of local government or their members. It may be technically feasible that in any port company the 12, 15 or 17 members are local authority members or, conversely, if the specific skills do not exist in that local authority, then none of them should be members. If we are interested in bringing up the standard of public representation, that is what we need to achieve. We need a skills set, whether in harbours, education or healthcare and not just members sitting on bodies for the sake of it. If we can achieve that, there will be more respect for politics in general and identification with local government in particular. Members in this House, because of their special relationship with members of local authorities, should reflect on those facts and see how we can improve matters in this regard.

In my own area in Cork there is a conflict of interest between the local authorities - Cork City Council and Cork County Council - and the Port of Cork Company, particularly towards the development of the Port of Cork Company. The city's interest is in developing the south city docklands which, outside of irregular cargos for IAWS which are happy to move to a new location, is ripe for new development and would bring new life to the city. Instead we have a stand-off between the Port of Cork Company and the local authorities that sees little movement to allow such redevelopment to occur. That is despite the fact that Cork City Council has direct representation on the Port of Cork Company. Even where representation exists, what is the value of it when it cannot deal with these vitally important issues of infrastructure and economic development at a local level?