Written Answers. - Dublin Port Task Force.
Seán Haughey
Question:
113
Mr. Haughey
asked the
Minister for the Marine and Natural Resources
if he will give full details in relation to his recent announcement regarding the establishment of a special task force to deal with Dublin Port traffic; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
[9942/01]
On 27 March 2001 I appointed an expert task force to advise me on transport logistics in connection with commercial seaports. This is the first time transport logistics will be assessed for our seaports which handle 99% by volume of our imports and exports. As the Deputy will be aware the number one port in the State, Dublin, is increasingly suffering from congestion. Handling a throughput of some 21 million tonnes in 2000 out of a total national ports throughput of 43 million tonnes, it is at the heart of Ireland's transport chain. It is a fact that many ports are located within or in proximity to busy and often congested city and town centres. We need to do everything possible to ease traffic congestion at ports like Dublin and at the other key seaports serving the national and regional economies.
It is vital for all our major seaports at Greenore, Drogheda, Dún Laoghaire, Rosslare, Waterford, New Ross, Cork, Shannon Foynes and Galway as well as Dublin that we all work towards achieving a seamless transport chain from road or rail through ports and that we do this in a way that avoids delays, congestion and environmental damage and adds to Irish competitiveness.
I have asked the group to specifically examine the potential for increasing the volume of port traffic which is transported by rail and the transfer of port generated freight traffic from road to rail including the development of rail head facilities at existing ports, transport of freight across transport modes by night-off peak, rail, road and shipping, as well as opportunities for traffic diversion including by rail, by pipeline, including relocation of oil tank farms, to other less congested ports outside Dublin.
The group will also seek to identify other imaginative proposals to reduce congestion and make port access-egress more efficient, cost-effective options for the movement of port related traffic through Dublin and the possibilities for transfer of non essential activities away from ports.
The task force is chaired by Dr. John Mangan of the Irish Management Institute, an expert in transport logistics and it is fully representative and includes experts from the ports and shipping industries, local authorities, Departments, Iarnróid Éireann as well as the social partners and independent specialists from the transport and other sectors. The task force has invited submissions and representations from interested bodies or people as part of a wide ranging public consultation process. I am anxious that the task force consult widely and take on board the views of all the interested parties especially those who rely on sea transport and the ports industry for their livelihoods.
