Sailing group adds to criticism of appointments to harbour boards

THE row over State appointments to nine new harbour boards is likely to continue, with the latest criticism coming from the Irish Sailing Association. Leisure users were "snubbed" in the nominations, the ISA said.

The Department of the Marine ignored "totally" the leisure sector, Mr Neil Murphy, ISA president, said in a statement. Dun Laoghaire Chamber of Commerce has already criticised the Minister for the Marine, Mr Barrett, and the Minister of State, Mr Eamon Gilmore, over the harbour board's composition.

The boards have been established under the updated Harbours Act, which was amended to create a more competitive structure of semi state commercial companies in 12 ports. Nine of the 12 have been "vested" since March 3rd - namely Cork, Drogheda, Dublin, Dun Laoghaire, Foynes, Galway, New Ross, Shannon estuary and Waterford. Arklow, Dundalk and Wicklow still await the changes.

The ministers announced the appointments a month ago, when the State became the major shareholder and each company was empowered to manage its port on a more commercial basis. Initially the Department defended the gender balance of nine chairmen by saying women had been appointed to the boards themselves.

Dunn Laoghaire Chamber of Commerce was one of the first dissenting voices after the list of board members was published. Appointments there had generated "unprecedented outrage", the chamber said when it called on the Government to give the business community a more meaningful role".

"It is widely accepted that these appointments were politically motivated," the chamber said. This was borne out by the constitution of other boards - a "totally unacceptable" practice. Dun Laoghaire Chamber, representing 550 companies which employed over 65,000 people, viewed the omission of a representative reflecting its interests as "detrimental" to the port's future.

Mr Murphy said it was "very concerned" at both the "snubbing" of leisure users and the implications for the leisure sector. The ISA and various sailing clubs had proposed names of well qualified and experienced people who could have contributed to development and management.

It was "ironic" that the Department had ignored a Marine Institute/ESRI survey confirming the sector's importance, the ISA said. The survey had shown that more than 80,000 people participated in sailing, rowing and powerboating in 1995. That this should be overlooked in the composition of harbour boards was an "insult to the principles of democracy", the ISA said.

The Department said in response that it was satisfied that the new boards would look after leisure interests.