Ned O'Sullivan (Fianna Fail)

I acknowledge the presence in the Visitors Gallery of a great friend of ours and a former Deputy, Mr. Eddie Wade, with whom I had the pleasure of serving on the Shannon Foynes Port Company for several years. It is fortuitous that he has arrived during this debate.

The issues most debated appear to be those of rationalisation of boards, mergers, the number of directors and, especially, representation by local authority members. I have mixed opinions about the first matter. Along with Mr. Wade, I was a member of the Shannon Estuary Port Company when the former Limerick Harbour Commissioners and the Foynes Port Company were amalgamated by the then Minister with responsibility for the marine, Deputy Frank Fahey. There was much difficulty with the matter. There was a hard campaign and I was one of those in favour of the merger because I believed the estuary would gain overall from the creation of a single authority. I believed my area in County Kerry would stand to gain from the change. Not everyone agreed with this position. There were teething difficulties with the amalgamation, some of which have been well documented. I lived through the changes and, overall, it was a good example of a merger.

I am not so sanguine about the proposed merger of Shannon Foynes Port Company with Fenit Harbour. This is not at all popular in County Kerry. I was speaking to the chairman of the board, Councillor John Wall, this morning and he explained there was resistance across the board in Fenit and Tralee to the proposal. Fenit's operation is very different from Shannon Foynes which is a huge, industrialised port. The business of Fenit is almost entirely leisure and tourism-based. It has a niche industry client, Liebherr in Killarney, which, if Fenit was not available, might relocate out of Kerry and the south west altogether. The Minister of State should be cautious in this regard.

Our colleague, Senator Denis O'Donovan, has championed the cause of Bantry in the House and, formerly, in the Dáil. He regrets that he cannot be present but he has outlined, as have other speakers, the way that Bantry has returned a profit through the years, as has Fenit. If something is working and not broken, one does not fix it. A port that is making money should be cherished.

I am a student of history and I am currently reading late 19th century history. An extraordinary coincidence has occurred because at the turn of the 19th century there was much trouble in Bantry and there was a very formidable politician there by the name of Timothy M. Healy. Like Senator O'Donovan, he had a beard and practised as a solicitor. He led a group of politicians which became known as the Bantry gang. They created much difficulty for their leader at that time, Mr. Charles Stewart Parnell, who was an elected representative for County Meath. The Minister for Transport, Deputy Dempsey, should examine closely——