Home / Newsroom / 2010 / Refusing Dublin Port Development is Myopic and Undermines Irish Export Development

Press Release

9^th June 2010

Bord Pleanala Decision Today (9^th June 2010) Refusing Dublin Port Development is Myopic and Undermines Irish Export Development - state Irish Exporters Association (IEA)

The IEA today (9^th June 2010) stated that the Bord Pleanala decision to refuse the development of the 21 hectares in Dublin Port indicated a worrying lack of understanding of the economic needs of exporters as we try to emerge from the recession. The decision follows a pattern of deplorable poor decision making when it comes to major infrastructural projects.

John Whelan, CEO of the IEA said on hearing of the decision;

"North America is our most significant export market. It is particularly important as a destination for high value manufactured goods, emanating from the factories of the many US multinationals located here. The value export and import trade with the US last year was over €25Billion .With a further €11 billion in trade with North America emanating from Northern Ireland. Yet, we do not have a direct shipping service to this our number one export market, because of the lack of suitable deep sea birthing facilities in our ports.

The 21 hectare development at Dublin Port was scheduled to fill this gap in the Irish trading capability, offering suitable infrastructure to efficiently handle the larger transatlantic ships and the increasingly larger European ship. The development would have enabled Dublin Port to move up the international rankings as a key European port, and ensure the more efficient larger ships could be accommodated in Ireland.

In an increasingly competitive international market for manufactured goods, Irish exporters needed to be able to keep reducing the cost of shipping and speed to market. We have been loosing out in recent years , and have faced falling merchandise exports .The Dublin Port development if it had proceeded, offered an opportunity to halt the decline. The refusal after a decade of delays by An Bord Pleanala is myopic and damaging to the future development of Irish merchandise export activity.

The IEA carried out a major survey in 2008, of exporters to the US and their requirements for expanding trade across the Atlantic. Companies such as PepsiCo, Diageo in the South, and Bombardier, Power Screen and Wilson in the North, were very concerned about the continued delays in trans-shipping via the UK or the European continent, before goods were loaded onto a ship for North America. Time to get a container from Ireland to the US had increased from 10 -12 days some 10 years ago to 17 - 20 days currently. The need was clearly stated that a direct shipping service from Ireland to the US was essential to both secure current trade volumes, as well enable future export growth.

The Survey indicated there were adequate volumes of cargo on an all �island basis to enable a direct shipping service to operate.

However, other requirements to start up the service were not adequate such as;

- A port that can handle the appropriate size of ship and

- A willingness by any major Atlantic Shipping Line, to alter an existing itinerary to accommodate an Irish call.

While a number of Irish ports have plans to develop their dredging and terminal facilities, there is none which could, at the moment, readily and consistently handle a ship of the size used on the Atlantic run.

The IEA statement further advised;

Working with the Irish port management and the major exporters, we find that readiness to come up with flexible solutions is an important ingredient in attracting more and bigger faster shipping lines. But, there is the need also to invest in basic port infrastructure such as dredging and deepwater quays, ahead of demand. In most other European countries, the state undertakes this critical investment in their ports, much the same way as they do for the road or rail network. In Ireland, there appears to be a blind spot when it comes to port investment. In the 2000-2006 National Development Plan (NDP), 180 million euro was allocated for port development; however, only 80 million was actually spent. Exchequer difficulties was the reason given by the then Dept of Marine. In the NDP 2007-2013, this could have been corrected, but amazingly there was not a single euro allocated for port development.

Mr. Whelan concluded by saying;

"Major Infrastructural decisions of national importance , such as the Port of Dublin 21 hectare development ,should not have been left in the hands of Bord Pleanala. And we now ask that the Major Infrastructure Task force take over the application and over-rule this bad decision in favour of this necessary development proceeding in the national interest."

END

For further information , please contact ;

Mr. John Whelan, Chief Executive:

Mobile 087 927 1243