Noel Ahern (Dublin North West, Fianna Fail)

I would like to but I do not know if I can make Senator O'Donovan happy. I wish I could. He has an extraordinarily innovative or suspicious mind. I think he is wrong but I cannot state that authoritatively. Senator O'Donovan started by speaking about the request made to Bantry Bay Harbour Commissioners in 2005. We suggested that Bantry should engage in a due diligence exercise with Cork Port.

Yes, it was stated that amalgamation would not take place until the due diligence report and due process were completed. Prior to this legislation there was a process and plenty of consultation. We have accepted an amendment to the Bill to formalise this consultation process. It would have taken place anyway but I agreed to formalise it in the legislation. The commitment given four years ago still stands and we have not wavered one iota from it.

The Senator knows and has stated that the due diligence exercise was not completed because of a problem with foreshore property and this is being resolved. However, four years ago it would have been expected that matters would have moved much quicker and that by now the due diligence would have been completed. Of course it will go to Bantry when it is completed but it is not done. Bits of it might be done but the report does not exist and Cork cannot complete it until it receives the data from Bantry on the foreshore issue. When the report exists and is complete it will go to Bantry, if not from Cork then from the Department. There is no point in getting some pages of a novel or a report and not others. This would end up confusing rather than clarifying issues.

Nothing is being concealed or hidden. The sequence of events has turned out to be different than what people might have presumed four years ago.