Ned O'Sullivan (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister to the House and give a broad welcome to the Bill. It will not be opposed by my party at this stage, if at all. Our ports and harbours are one of our most important pieces of infrastructure with regard to the overall economy, communications and goods inwards and outwards. I speak as someone with the privilege of serving for 16 years as a director of a number of harbour boards in the west and on the Shannon in particular under various denominations. I was a director of the Limerick harbour board and the Shannon Foynes Port Company, along with a number of other local authority members. The prohibition on Deputies, MEPs and Senators serving on boards will now be extended to include councillors and although I know the chestnut has been debated well, I have very mixed feelings about it. In the 16 years in which I represented Kerry on the Shannon Estuary, the best-informed and least personally biased directors - aside from parochial interests - would have been county councillors. If a board is to be created where members cannot have another interest, it will be very difficult to form any board. If somebody from the business sector is put on, who is the say the person does not have financial arrangements regarding import or export for a particular harbour? It is very difficult to find somebody who would be squeaky clean.

When I was first elected here in 2007, I was followed by a Standards in Public Office, SIPO, request or a complaint about me from a disgruntled person in Kerry who felt I had over-extended myself by representing the interests of the harbour board on Kerry County Council with regard to a planning matter. For a while I was worried about the complications as I had no axe to grind or anything to gain personally. I suppose the harbour board and the interests of the county council did, to a certain extent, overlap. As a member of both, I felt it was my duty to represent both. I was fortunate to receive a full and positive exoneration by SIPO. I can see the other view as well. There is a blanket exclusion of county councillors, notwithstanding what we saw in last night's programme. That exposé asked more questions about RTE than it did of councillors. I heard my colleague, Senator Brennan, making the point that we know and have worked with councillors, and they are decent, honourable people. Like every other job in the world, there are aberrations and anomalies, with people doing the wrong thing. We are proud of our councillors and we are proud to be elected by them. I am digressing from the question but the blanket exclusion of county councillors should be considered more seriously.

The Minister has indicated the Bill is not prescriptive but sets out the framework by which statutory instruments can be used. There is a question about that. As the Taoiseach famously asked, does Paddy know everything then? We are voting on the outline of legislation but the devil will be in the detail when the Minister introduces a statutory instrument. What level of control and oversight will we have of that? Will the Minister accept that this should be teased out on a committee level with various parties so we could have the main bullet points of what the statutory instrument might entail? I will not exaggerate and say we are creating an enabling Act like Hitler but we are giving the Minister carte blancheto a certain extent. Fianna Fáil supports the transfer of responsibility for the regional ports and harbours to local authorities. We would like greater detail from the Minister at a later stage. As I stated, we would like a draft statutory instrument to be made available to the joint committee.

I am sure the Minister agrees it is important that councils inheriting responsibility for harbour boards should not be heirs to any dogs tied, as we say in Kerry. There should not be any debts, as some of these debts are often hidden. It is important that this is done with a clean sheet and not by carrying legacy issues or problems. I am sure the people from the east coast have their views on what are to be designated regional harbours on the east coast. The only ones I am reasonably familiar with on my own side of the coast - apart, naturally, from Shannon - is Cork and Dublin. Shannon, Cork and Dublin are responsible for 80% of all cargo handling in this country. The Shannon Estuary is the biggest bulk cargo handling port in Ireland. It is probably second only to Rotterdam with regard to its natural deep harbour.

I do not want to pre-empt the comments of my colleague from Galway but to a certain extent, its port seems to be losing out. Galway is the only port of consequence north of Kerry on the west coast. Knock Airport proved to be central to the revival of the west and I want to ensure nothing in this Bill will downgrade or make less appealing the facilities in Galway. Designations have a habit of creating their own problems. We have the three major harbours, a raft of important harbours and then smaller harbours. Fenit's facility was transferred to the local authority in Kerry without much trouble. Has the Minister given sufficient thought to how central Galway's port is to the economy of the west and mid-west?

I could go on at length but the bottom line is we are giving the Minister the go-ahead at this stage. We wish the Bill well but we will consider the detail later.