More than 45 million tonnes of cargo has been handled for the first time, with forecasts of 50 million tonnes before the millennium.
The Minister for the Marine and Natural Resources, Dr Woods, also reported a significant growth in the number of ferry passengers last year, with 4.7 million travellers recorded at the four key Ro-Ro passenger ports of Dublin, Dun Laoghaire, Rosslare and Ringaskiddy. The Minister has attributed the jump in cargo volume and passenger numbers to a "genuinely competitive ports industry", which has been transformed by the previous government's legislation to commercialise State harbours and establish new port companies.
That 1995 Harbours Bill was introduced by the late marine minister, Mr Hugh Coveney, and his junior colleague, Mr Eamon Gilmore. It aimed to set up commercial State companies at the leading ports and to revise the law on pilotage on the basis that the 1946 Harbours Act and 1913 Pilotage Act made it impossible for ports to run in a commercial fashion.
After a difficult transition, the new port companies with streamlined boards are running with varying fortunes, as the Davy/ Kelleher/McCarthy report on transport needs has noted. Dublin is the outstanding success, with the port's share of total traffic projected to increase by 40 per cent by 2007.
While most ports would argue for more public funding in the next EU structural fund round, the level of such support is in question. In 1992, when a Government review group on commercialising harbours published its recommendations, economist Dr Sean Barrett of Trinity College Dublin issued a minority report arguing the case against 75 per cent EU funding.
Commercialisation was "inconsistent" with a 75 per cent subsidy rate, he pointed out. Arguing that EU transfers should be used at that time to retire national debt rather than co-finance further increases, he said Ireland's problem was not a shortage of capital for port or other investment. He advised against subsidising infrastructure as a means of reducing transport costs, as the evidence showed that transport subsidies "frequently accrue to the producers rather than the users".
At a series of seminars run by the Marine Institute, it was suggested that investment in ports after 2000 would have to be more selective.
While there was endorsement of the general direction in which government policy was moving, it was felt that 12 commercial seaports might be too many to survive in a "free market". It identified the high costs of investment in port infrastructure, with the life cycle of such investments shortening as new and larger ships were introduced.
The Marine Institute seminar called for a long-term integrated ports policy and a blueprint which would encompass the Northern Irish ports of Larne and Belfast.
It also stressed the need for greater co-ordination between government departments. The Department of the Marine and Natural Resources is due to publish a study shortly on secondary ports - those handling fewer than 200,000 tonnes a year.
In this context, there have been calls for a broader view of the role of ports. Ireland could become a centre for international maritime business, according to the Institute of Irish Master Mariners, and it has managed to engage the IDA and the Department of the Marine and Natural Resources in a feasibility study of such potential.
The Government is also committed to a new maritime college at Ringaskiddy in Cork, which would provide for training in both mercantile and naval sectors.
Ireland, The Sea and the New Millennium is the title of a seminar to be hosted by the Irish branch of the Nautical Institute later this year. Chaired by Capt Enda Connellan, chief executive officer of Dublin Port Company, the seminar will debate how this island can benefit both economically and socially from its "most under-utilised resource".
Details of the seminar, which will be held in the Grand Hotel, Malahide, Dublin, on November 17th, are available from the Nautical Institute's treasurer, Mr Gary Delaney, at (021) 832 990 or email charternav@tinet.ie