Ireland's Bremore port plan slammed as unnecessary

A controversial plan to build a new port, competing with Dublin Port, has been criticised by Enda Connellan, chief executive of Dublin Port Co, for being the sole “legacy of unsustainable public expenditure” in the Irish ports sector.

Mr Connellan said that the proposal had been accepted in “a legislative and policy vacuum” in the country. He was referring to a E300m deepwater port scheme, known as Bremore Ireland Port, to be operated by a subsidiary of Hutchison Whampoa.

Opponents say it would require substantial state spending on infrastructure.

Mr Connellan said that Irish ports had successfully maintained growth and Dublin would be “using up spare capacity pretty quickly.”

He was speaking at conference in Copenhagen to raise the profile of SKEMA, a project being developed by the European Commission as a comprehensive and interactive ‘digital library’ of maritime sector research and reference, and which Dublin Port, priding itself as being a “Knowledge Centre for Port Operations and Services,” is supporting.

(Source: Port Strategy)