Vol. 524 No. 2
143 Mr. Quinn asked the Minister for the Marine and Natural Resources the Government policy in respect of the development of the port of Dublin in the context of an integrated national ports strategy; if his remarks of 16 September 2000 at the opening of Cork port indicate that it is now his Department's policy to wean away as much business as possible from Dublin Port to Cork, Waterford and Foynes ports; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [21940/00]
In the course of my opening address to the National Ports Conference on 29 September last, I adverted to the need to reduce congestion at Dublin Port and the gridlock experienced by traffic movements to and from the port and its environs.
This is nothing new. Earlier this year in April when I first met the Irish Ports Association, at which Dublin Port was represented, in April when I visited Dublin Port and as the Deputy has quoted when in Cork in September and on other occasions, I have pointed out that until the port tunnel is completed and open for business, Dublin Port will have difficulty in managing its traffic throughput.
Dublin Port is our number one port in the country. Throughput has risen from 6.1 million tonnes in 1989 to 15.2 million in 1999 and is forecast to reach 23.7 million tonnes by 2007. It handles by far the largest proportion of the country's unitised freight, some 71%, and has a high prospective growth over the coming seven years.
As the Deputy is aware, immediate access to the port is through busy residential and commercial areas. The port's own road network is to a high standard with more than adequate capacity. However, because of severe congestion in the vicinity of the port caused, to a large extent, by heavy commuter traffic, port traffic is severely disrupted and delayed as it seeks to enter and leave the port. All traffic currently accesses the port through the city streets, most of it along the quays and the East Wall Road. The Dublin port tunnel, which is due to be completed in 2004, will provide a direct link from the port to the M1 or M50. However, in the meantime all port traffic will have to continue to access the national road network via the city's streets.
An expert EU co-financed assessment of port access requirements nationally, which I intend to publish shortly, concludes that "Dublin will increasingly face capacity constraints over the next ten years. Over the period to 2006, immediate capacity constraints will be felt in the unitised modes and ongoing expansion of facilities will be a priority. If land for expansion is unavailable, the port will have to concentrate its developments on increasing the utilisation of existing land and facilities and possibly forgoing existing lower value trades which are space intensive". It is also a fact that the financial power and underlying strength of the larger ports, Dublin and Cork in particular, has already led to a concentration of volumes in these ports.
