Sir, – Further to "Dublin Port Company opposes housebuilding at Poolbeg" (February 15th), the deepening of Dublin Port to allow much larger ships dock there has little to do with cruise ships and a lot to do with increased container traffic. The new generation of container ships can carry up to five times the number of containers than current ones, and thus five times the amount of land will be required to store the containers for movement in and out of the port. This is all in the planning submission to An Bord Pleanála.
Thus the Dublin Port Company’s objection to any development adjacent to the port.
Having such container traffic come into the heart of the city is not good environmental planning. Moving each single container on a truck is not environmentally friendly either.
It would be faster for most shipping and much more environmentally friendly to have our container traffic arrive at Rosslare, for example, and then spread it out regionally on the rail network.
One train engine could haul perhaps 30 containers, while a truck can haul one.
Using Dublin Bay for all this increased traffic is not in keeping with its biosphere and its special area of conservation status.
The plan to deepen the port includes a plan to dump 10 million tons of excavated sea-floor material into Dublin Bay, and some of this material is contaminated with heavy metals. – Yours, etc,
PEADAR FARRELL,
Raheny,
Dublin 5.