Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 15 May 2014
23. Deputy Patrick O'Donovan asked the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport if his Department has received correspondence from any tier two or tier three ports as identified in the national ports policy of their intention to carry out major expansion of their facilities; if it is his intention to uphold the categorisation of ports as contained in the policy; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [21525/14]
View answerAs the Deputy is aware, I published a new National Ports Policy in March 2013 which seeks to recognise the importance of all of our ports while acknowledging the differences between them and their particular roles in national, regional and local economies and communities. The policy categorises the State owned ports into
- Ports of National Significance (Tier 1): Dublin, Cork and Shannon
- Ports of National Significance (Tier 2): Rosslare and Waterford
- Ports of Regional Significance: Drogheda, Dún Laoghaire, Galway, New Ross and Wicklow.
Our Ports of National Significance are our key international maritime gateways and handle essentially 100% of our containerised trade and around 85 – 90% of total tonnage in any given year. This realignment of national policy focus on those designated Ports of National Significance is a feature of general EU ports policy and also national level ports policy among a number of individual EU, and indeed OECD, member states.
The five Ports of Regional Significance collectively handle approximately 3.5% of national tonnage and are each individually important in terms of their role and function within their region. However, it is clear that they are not facilities of national importance that warrant their continued oversight by central Government. In keeping with the spirit of local Government reform generally, this oversight function could better be carried out at local Government level. Therefore, it is proposed to transfer control of these ports to relevant local authority led governance structures.
In January 2014 Galway Harbour Company submitted an application to An Bord Pleanála in respect of a proposed extension to its port facilities. That application will be considered by An Bord Pleanála under the strategic infrastructure development planning process. As current shareholder in the Company I was of course kept apprised by the Company as it developed its plans and I am additionally a statutory consultee as part of the planning process.
