Jim Walsh (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Senator O'Neill has raised a point in respect of which it has occurred to me to wonder why the Minister looks to retain 51%. It does not make any sense. If a company is going to invest in a port, it will come with some expertise in the shipping or port business. The least that party would want is management control but it would not have that at 49%. What the Minister is doing is leaving the local authority holding management control. I do not see any real benefit in that if the partner coming in has the expertise I suggest. I would see some benefit in the State holding 26% to ensure that the assets could not be disposed of. The next threshold after the 51% is 75% where one can control the sale of the assets. Why is it imperative for a local authority, which is not in the business of ports at all and which may have no staff member with expertise other than a person working in the port, to control management? It might just deprive a port of the opportunity to have commercial entities becoming involved.