Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Senators for the amendment and for the arguments they have offered in favour of it. I am not accepting the amendment because I am confident that the Minister of the day already has sufficient powers to deal with the issues the Senators have referred to. I anchor this in the report from the Competition Authority, which has broadly endorsed the policy being delivered through the Bill and through the overall national ports policy.

Regarding the issuing of directions, I must recognise at all times that the boards of directors of the ports, and indeed the local authorities themselves, are autonomous units, particularly for those ports that are transitioned into the local authorities. As companies they will still have boards of directors who will have commercial duties. As Minister, it is not my role to issue directions to get involved in the commercial operation of a port. That said, I believe I have sufficient power to deal with the matters that Senators Barrett and Craughwell have outlined. My departmental officials may at any time require or request information from ports about the implementation of the recommendations of the Competition Authority's report. In addition, section 40 of the Bill introduces a new statutory power requiring the port companies to be accountable to the Oireachtas joint committee with responsibility for transport policy. The committee members will be able to play a role in investigating the implementation of the Competition Authority's policy. For those two reasons, I believe there is sufficient power in place to deal with the implementation of the report. As I said at the beginning, the Competition Authority has endorsed the policy enshrined in this legislation.