Noel Ahern (Dublin North West, Fianna Fail)

Even with some of the bigger ports, having 12 is too many. With some of the smaller ones it is possible to end up with more board members than staff. The change would not affect the term of any existing board member in any case.

There is another view. From the point of view of the Department of Transport, there is another aspect although this has been recommended to us by various reports. We would link it in with, for example, airport boards like Dublin Airport Authority or Cork Airport Authority. There are no local authority members on any of those commercial State bodies. It is rather different. One needs to go back into the history of ports and the harbour authorities. This is strictly about port boards rather than harbour authorities.

Sometimes even in the present set up there can be a conflict of interest for a local authority member. On Dublin City Council lately a very topical issue is an application to reclaim part of Dublin Bay which has been discussed for some years. That is a contentious issue for Dublin City Council. The three local authority members who are on the board of Dublin Port Company were forced to excuse themselves and could not take part in the planning discussions at the council. It is an argument as to which is more important. Dealing with planning issues as indicated by the previous amendment is a big issue for local authorities. In that case there was a very obvious conflict of interest and the three councillors had to exclude themselves and, as a result, were denied the opportunity to perform or take part in their planning role. It is possible to debate it either way.

The Minister, Deputy Dempsey, has made it clear that he will continue to appoint a local authority member as one of his statutory nominees. That is not in legislation — the Minister has said he will do it. It is up to all of us to ensure that other Ministers do likewise in the future.