Jim Walsh (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I agree with much of what Senator Barrett said and I agree with the figures. The figures for New Ross Port are very bad because of a significant decline in the traffic through that port. I am familiar with ports, although it is 45 years since I operated in Wicklow Port when I was with Nitrigin Éireann Teoranta. We brought rock phosphate through that port. Wicklow and Galway ports have very limited potential, in my opinion. Drogheda and New Ross ports certainly have potential and they have proven this by having good operations and large tonnage well in excess of those other ports for 40 or 50 years up until the last decade.

In the context of putting ports under the control of local authorities - I think Senator Barrett asked a very succinct question in this regard - the difficulty is around what local authorities will do to enhance the recovery of operations in those ports. There is a complete imbalance in giving all the powers to county managers who will often have many more problems with which to deal. Most of the managers are contemplating losses. The deficit in Wexford is approximately €10 million and that will concentrate the mind of our county manager ahead of what happens in the Port of New Ross or whatever new responsibilities he might have there. I am concerned that the local authorities would consign a peripheral contribution to the ports in the future. From my experience at New Ross Port, it gained considerably at the expense of Waterford Port because of the bad industrial relations at the latter, particularly in the 1970s, 1980s and into the 1990s. The whole south east depended upon New Ross Port being a functioning facility and the area made a contribution. Business and traffic through ports is cyclical. The Ministers made reference to the move towards panamax sizes. The animal feed shipments used to come in on 1,000, 2,000 and 3,000 tonne ships and are now coming in on 20,000 and 25,000 tonne ships. There are only a couple of ports in the State that can actually handle that size vessel. However, traffic and shipping changes. My main concern is that removing the potential to meet the country's future needs could be an error and a lack of foresight.