Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)
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Question 429: To ask the Minister for Transport the new policy for ports which has been agreed by Government; if it is intended to discontinue the appointment of local authority members to the board of port companies; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [4970/06]

Martin Cullen (Waterford, Fianna Fail)
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The Government's ports policy statement was published in January 2005. It is available on the Department's website. It comprises several key elements, including proposed measures to give clearer and more focused commercial mandates to the ten State-owned commercial port companies.

One such measure is the proposed reduction from three to one in the number of local authority directors on the boards of port companies; where there is currently more than one local authority represented on the board of a port company, an appropriate system of rotation will apply. The Department is currently in the process of drafting legislation to implement this and other aspects of the ports policy statement.