Denis O'Donovan (Fianna Fail)

To resume on my amendments to section 18, especially concerning Bantry, I will continue with the quotation from the report. It states:

These responsibilities require that the Port should have facilities of appropriate standard. Moreover, the terminal operators have a requirement for the loading and unloading of larger vessels of 320,000 DWT resulting in the most economic and full commercial operation of the Whiddy facility. The Harbour Commissioners acknowledge that it is appropriate to review the existing limit of 150,000 DWT. However, the Harbour Commissioners recognise that these facilities will only be granted to the customer without any relaxation of safety and water quality standards.

Again, this is to indicate the professionalism of the harbour board in the way it goes about doing its work. That is important because it goes back to the core issue of Government funding and commitments. I mentioned a reply to the then Deputy Joe Walsh in 1986 about a figure of £1.5 million — a great deal of money at the time — to be spent in Bantry. I believe a few bob was spent on a golf course in Castletownbere and another in Bandon but the issue about which I am talking, namely, the extension of the pier and the dredging of the inner harbour which has been demanded for 40 years has not been dealt with and will never be if the Bill is passed. When I am in Heaven in 20 years' time, if I can find a pair of wings to fit me, I will be quoted as saying, "This will never happen."