Denis O'Donovan (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I wish to speak briefly in support of Senator Barrett's amendments. I will not delay the House very long and will not speak for four and a half or five hours. I see a lack of joined-up thinking in the port system in Ireland. Some are independent, while others are controlled by local authorities. For example, the legislation against which I fought dealt with Cork, and Kinsale and Baltimore were taken under the umbrella of Cork County Council. I fought against the legislation pertaining to Bantry but failed, and nothing has happened in the past five or six years. There have been a lot of plans and talks, but nothing has happened. My view is still that I would have preferred to see the local authority take over Bantry rather than the Port of Cork, because it would have involved more local cohesion. There is now provision in the Bill to allow the Minister of the day to transfer the likes of Bantry back to a local authority when the time suits. Bantry is a little nugget of gold, given the proximity of the Whiddy Island mine. When the Port of Cork decides that something is no longer viable or Whiddy closes down, it will transfer it back as a dead duck to Bantry.If one considers the overall system of ports in Ireland, there is no cohesion in that one port is independent and another has been taken over by the local authority. The establishment of Bantry Port as an independent port was almost achieved back in 1997 or in that era. As a former member of Bantry Harbour board who has read many reports on all these ports, some of which are in west Cork, I make the point that a local authority with hands-on control of a port, as opposed to it being brought under the auspices of a larger port, is the lesser of two evils. This is because I know for a fact the Cork Port authority had no interest in Bantry but was nudged along by the Department and the mandarins and agreed to take it over because at that point, there was €1.5 million in the kitty in Bantry.

A plan was then drawn up, which was agreed in principle, that particular development would be carried out with State aid and with investment by the Port of Cork but four fifths of it have been taken out and the planning was torn up. I note it took approximately 15 years to sort out planning in respect of due diligence and various items of work it was necessary to carry out before planning was complete. While that plan was to carry out A, B, C, D and E, Bantry is now left with A, and B, C, D and E have been thrown down the drain.

This is not a personal criticism of the Minister but I have grave reservations that the entire system is higgledy-piggledy and has no cohesion. While I cannot envisage how this Bill will be of help, I would prefer Bantry to be under the control of Cork County Council, in the same manner as are Baltimore and Kinsale, as opposed to the Port of Cork board. This is because the Port of Cork has a big vision and plan and Bantry is, was and ever will be a nuisance to it. Those who tell me otherwise will not convince me and will not convince 90% of the people of Bantry.