Vol. 384 No. 8
asked the Minister for the Marine the present position regarding the application by Waterford Harbour Commissioners for financial assistance from the EC for the provision of a major new port terminal at Belleville, County Waterford; when he expects to submit the application to Brussels: and when a decision will be expected from the Commission as to the extent to which they will finance the project.
11.
asked the Minister for the Marine if he has a strategic port plan for the country; if so, the ports which are listed for development; the ports which have applied for grants for development from the EC's regional fund; the applications which he will be pressing for sanction; and if he will give an indication of the time scales involved in each application.
I propose to take Questions Nos. 10 and 11 together. I am at present reviewing port policy in the context of the enlarged Community Structural Funds, the completion of the internal market and the opening of the Channel Tunnel. The twelve harbour authorities including Waterford Harbour Commissioners which cater for virtually all of the throughput at commercial harbours for which I have responsibility have at my request submitted their development plans covering the next five years. The plans are being considered for inclusion in operational programmes at national or sub-national level which are at present being prepared for submission to the EC. These programmes will be submitted in conjunction with the national development plan. Details of the time-scales involved for the submission of the national development plan were given by the Minister for Finance in his reply to Questions Nos. 38 and 40 on 25 October 1988. That reply also indicated the time-scale for an indication by the European Commission of the extent to which it is willing to provide assistance from the Structural Funds in respect of the plan.
The address in Question No. 10 is not properly worded, it should read "Bellview, County Kilkenny" as Bellview is on the Kilkenny side of the estuary. The Minister in his reply stated that 12 harbours had been singled out as being eligible for applications for EC funds. Have all those harbour authorities actually filed applications and plans for the works they wish to carry out and, if so, is he going to put the applications to the Commission in Europe in the order in which they have been received or in a certain order which he thinks is most desirable? Will the most worthy cases be presented first or will all 12 go together?
It is not necessary that all 12 go together. I will not detain the House with the names of the 12 but they include Waterford and various others in the south-east. We have looked for some further information. The plans have been submitted to us and have been costed by the harbour authorities. It would be wrong to submit them on a priority basis, on the basis on which we received them. We will certainly submit all of them if we feel they would qualify on a cost benefit analysis. We must, of course, be convinced that expenditure on them would be justified. In short, we will do an analysis on them when all the information is available. They must be submitted before the end of March.
How many of the 12 port authorities have already submitted plans and can the Minister say if any of these plans have already been passed on to Brussels? I got the impression from The Cork Examiner that Cork harbour has already been singled out for some grants.
We have received applications and proposals from the 12 but we have reverted to them, looking for further information. Whatever the Deputy may read in the paper none of them has been submitted. I am sure the House will agree that it would be foolish and irresponsible of us to submit them for the sake of submitting them. A cost benefit analysis will be done. As stated by me and by the former Minister for Finance they have to be submitted before the end of March and we must have a response from the Commission within six months.
A final question, Deputy Deasy.
May I ask the Minister if he expects the work on these harbours to commence within the five years mentioned, if he expects to see it completed within that time and when he expects the five year period to commence?
I hope it will commence shortly after we have a response which, I understand, according to the regulation must be before the end of next year, in September, we would hope. The intention is that developments on those applications which prove to be successful would commence at an early date because the development of these harbours is vitally important. If we look at the Community as a whole we will see that we will be the only country on the periphery. Because of the advent of the Channel Tunnel the UK will be linked to the Community and the development of our harbours is, therefore, of vital importance. I am well aware from experience in the past of the importance of the harbour to which the Deputy has referred. We knew full well that it was the one at Bellview in County Kilkenny which he was referring to.
I would appreciate if we could have some final details on the 12 harbour authorities involved.
The names of the 12.
