Noel Ahern (Dublin North West, Fianna Fail)

The Bill follows on from the ports policy document of 2005. As we all know, legislation comes along in its own way. It is a slow process. The Bill covers issues other than Bantry Bay. It has been drafted in the three or four years since the ports policy document was put through. It would have been expected that by now the due diligence report would have been done and a certain amount of consultation would have taken place.

Really it is another option and that is all it is. We are not changing anything midstream. Bantry Bay could have been signed over years ago under the two options which exist, namely to a private company or the local authority. The Bill provides another option if the due diligence report and the sides involved think it is a possibility and if the consultation process goes along with it.

Senator O'Donovan raises many interesting matters. The Department of Transport is coming at this from the point of view that the reason the ports were associated with the Department was because of the movement of goods and passengers, mainly goods. It makes great sense to see the Department of Transport involved in ports in Dublin, Waterford and Cork. I accept that when Senator O'Donovan speaks about places such as Bantry it is a different linkage and does not seem to fit the same scenario.

Although there was a long consultation process on the Government's port policy it may not seem to cover all the aspects for smaller places such as those discussed by Senator O'Donovan. However, there has been no concealment or reneging. There is an ongoing process and when this legislation goes through — if we do the business here and if we ever get it done — it will give a third option for what could happen after the due diligence is completed, goes to Bantry and we have the formal statutory consultation which I agreed to include in the Bill. We cannot have too many people with a veto but if, down the road, this all seems possible and feasible and everybody is reasonably happy, this could come about. It is just that the sequence has come in a different way.

There is no real change of tack or policy. It is just that legislation takes a couple of years to be drafted and the Bill just happens to have come at this stage. Senator O'Donovan is suspicious and sees problems. I do not know how I can assure him that I do not see it like that.