The Government should consider merging the management of certain State seaports, a leading economist has said.
If the State's three airports are being considered for privatisation, as a single company or separately, there is "no stronger case" than to do the same for ports, Mr Colm McCarthy of Davy Kelleher McCarthy (DKM) Economic Consultants told a national ports conference in Waterford. At the gathering, hosted by the Irish Ports Association, exporters called on the Government to provide funds for an "immediate" alternative to Dublin port. Solving Dublin's onshore access problems would not be sufficient, given the growth in trade, Mr P.J. Murphy of the Irish Exporters' Association said.
Several European governments have been moving towards port privatisation, notably Britain, and groupings of harbours under one central management is also common across the water, Mr McCarthy said in his address.
Referring to the recent KPMG consultancy report, which recommended amalgamating certain authorities overseeing the State's regional ports and harbours, Mr McCarthy said some of the "corporatised" ports were arguably too small to justify "standalone" establishments.
The State has 10 "corporatised" ports, nine of which belong to the Minister for the Marine and Natural Resources. The 10th Rosslare, is owned by CIE. Some 17 regional ports are effectively linked to local, rather than national government, and the KPMG study recommended corporatisation for three of these - Arklow, Dundalk and Wicklow.
Referring to commercial performance, Mr McCarthy said the pattern of growth was uneven. Trades related to agriculture had been notably weaker, due to slow volume growth and the difficulties experienced by the live cattle trade. The EU Commission's green paper on seaports had argued that port charges should reflect the "user pays" principle, and should thus cover the capital and operating costs, and financial assistance to ports should come within the definition of State aids.
The Minister, Dr Woods, told the conference that he was establishing a national users forum to strengthen customer accountability at the nine State port companies. Each of the ports would be obliged to establish an individual forum for its own customers. He said last year had been another record one in terms of seaborne trade, which was now set to pass 50 million tonnes - compared to just more than 45 million tonnes through all ports in 1998.
Solving Dublin port's problems in relation to onshore access would "not be enough for exporters", Mr P.J. Murphy of the Irish Exporters Association told the conference. Exporters wanted an alternative seawater port to be developed immediately to handle growing trade volumes efficiently. The Government should immediately devote some of the surplus Exchequer funds to provide for this, in anticipation of growth to come, and EU funding should also be sought out, if it is available, Mr Murphy said.
