asked the Minister for Communications if grant aid will be made available for port development at Greenore.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Greenore Port Development.
10.
There is no application at present before my Department for the provision of grant aid for port development at Greenore. The limited funds at my disposal for harbour development are, as a matter of policy, made available to publicly controlled harbours, mainly those governed by the Harbours Act, 1946. It would be inconsistent with this policy to provide State grant assistance to a privately owned port such as Greenore.
I accept that there is no application in the Department but numerous inquiries have been made to the Department over a period of years about the availability of grant aid for the development of Greenore Port. Having regard to the serious economic situation that exists in the north-east, which is mainly concentrated in County Louth, would the Minister not think it appropriate to look at the question of the restriction of grant aid for the development of privately owned ports such as Greenore? It would help the overall economic development of the area if such aid was made available for the port.
As the Deputy will be aware a review of the policy on ports is almost reaching a conclusion. In this report many matters relating to the running and funding of ports will be addressed. The point made by the Deputy will be one that will be considered in the context of that review. The situation in County Louth highlights one of the problems in regard to ports in general because in respect of the three ports there, Greenore, Drogheda and Dundalk, grant assistance is being sought, in some cases to provide parallel facilities. I am not sure that such replication of facilities is a wise use of scarce resources. It involves enormous expense to the Exchequer and encourages competition between ports that are near each other when the resources could be put to better use perhaps elsewhere.