IBEC calls for investment to avoid congestion in Irish ports

Latest figures show an 8.6% rise in trade in the second half of this year and new terminals are thought to be essential to prevent the ports getting too congested.

However, IBEC claims the government is operating on the basis of conservative estimates of growth in the region of just 3-4% annually.

IBEC's transport director Reg McCabe said that now is the time to act: “If a decision is made today the facilities won’t be on the ground for at least five years so even if a decision is made by the government today we are going to face bottleneck problems very quickly anyway.”