Dundalk Port Company is one of Ireland's smallest port companies as it employees six full-time staff and has a casual labour force of about 15. I was appointed chief executive and harbour master in March 2003. This may sound a bit harsh but I would describe Dundalk Port as a mud creek. It is situated eight miles from the sea, where ships up to 3,500 tonnes and with a maximum length of 120 m can navigate to the quays close to high water. These ships sit safely on the bottom and discharge their cargoes. On completion of their cargo work they sail on the next available high water. The advantage of Dundalk Port is its closeness to the new road infrastructure linking the M1 motorway to the north, south and midlands.
On my appointment to Dundalk as CEO, I found the port had a major problem with silting of the river. Through NDP funding the port company was grant-aided to the tune of €1.1 million towards the cost of dredging. We tendered for the dredging work and received quotes, on the open market, of between €6 million and €8 million. Unfortunately, the port company was unable to raise these funds to carry out these works. The board then agreed that we would purchase our own dredger. The total cost for the project was €1.8 million and it saved the Exchequer €4.2 million.
The port company had very successful trading in 2006 and 2007 with profit margins of above €200,000. The next year was a tough one with a fall off in the importation of building materials and the export of scrap for the production of steel. This year will not be easy for the port company although we are receiving additional cash from outside dredging contracts. We are the only dredging company wholly owned in Ireland and our dredger is available for charter. Over the past years the company has carried out dredging at various ports such as the new port at Port Oriel, Clogherhead, where we spent a year dredging the new port and harbour, Kilkeel in Northern Ireland where we are presently dredging, and Fenit, County Kerry, where we carried out major deepwater dredging for the port last year. We carried out some work for the Port of Cork and for subcontractors working on the riverside. We also worked in New Ross and up until last week we worked in Dublin at the Macken Street Bridge, the famous new bridge that arrived in Dublin. I carried out the original dredging for it and I finished it last week. We have also done work for Howth Harbour and Howth Yacht Club.
With regard to expansion, the port company has commenced work on an impact study to build 200 m of new quays. This is a two to three year project and will enable the port to handle more cargo due to the additional quay space. The company is also looking at new projects such as inhouse ship management to increase its cashflow. That is who I am and what we do.
