Denis O'Donovan (Fianna Fail)

Consultation is central to several of the amendments I have tabled. As I noted earlier, I was a member of the Bantry harbour board for several years. Consultation is critical at all stages. Since I last spoke on this Bill, I held a refresher meeting with members of the board. Notwithstanding the grievances I have raised in the House, they wanted to express their gratitude to the staff of the Department of Transport for their ongoing co-operation on a variety of issues. I say this because, even though I am a former member, I represent a wider arena than the Bantry harbour board, which enjoys a good working relationship with certain personnel who shall remain nameless.

The bone on which I wish to chew pertains to the lack of consultation regarding some of the provisions contained in section 18. Commitments were made by two, if not three, senior Ministers and a number of junior Ministers, most of whom were members of my party, to consult the Bantry harbour board before proceeding with the proposed amalgamation with the Port of Cork. In effect, however, no consultations took place. The board was asked to proceed with due diligence and it co-operated with the Port of Cork and the Department. This process is close to completion, although several issues have arisen.

I wish to speak about the history of Bantry. In my younger days, Bantry was primarily a fishing port. Census figures from the turn of the 20th century indicate that more than 2,000 people were employed in the fishing industry. That changed when, in bad weather, 30 or 40 big Spanish fishing trawlers would come in to seek shelter. This transferred to Castletownbere, which is now a sea fishing port and protected from the situation referred to here.

I refer to the lack of consultation from the point when Bantry Bay Harbour Commissioners was set up. The catalyst for setting up the board was the three major oil spills, one of which was especially devastating and which took place on 22 October 1974. I started work as a student the following day, on 23 October, on the clean-up operation. Hundreds of people helped to clean it up. It was a major operation. There were lawsuits and other problems with it. Politically, if it were to happen now, with the advent of Sky, CNN, international focus and e-mail, it would be a worldwide phenomenon. There was potential for major damage, contributing to environmental and ecological problems. Mistakes were made and thousands of tonnes of crude oil were let flow into the bay.

The coalition in power between 1973 and 1977 was forced into action. The then Minister, Peter Barry, visited a few times and realised that something had to be done. Regulation and rules pertaining to Bantry were not appropriate. At the time, the international company, Gulf Oil, was a law unto itself. It was a major international conglomerate and basically did what it pleased. Nobody other than Cork Port had any interest. The matter crossed several Departments because there were fishing issues. The damage these oil spills caused acted as a catalyst to set up the Bantry Bay Harbour Commissioners.

I refer to consultation, which was necessary at the time and took place with Cork County Council. The council initially set up a harbour board that was toothless.