Terminal decision may have ‘economic repercussions’

PORT of Cork officials believe the economic future of the Munster region could be damaged by An Bord Pleanála’s refusal to allow them develop a new €226 million container terminal.

Port of Cork chief executive, Brendan Keating, said he was “very disappointed” with the decision to refuse permission for the new terminal at Ringaskiddy, given the company’s existing docks at Tivoli are now over capacity.

Mr Keating said that as a result, the port will be unable to handle the larger container ships coming on stream, and this could have economic repercussions for Cork and the Munster region.

The decision to refuse the application followed a 15-day oral hearing, held earlier this year. An Bord Pleanála officials decided that the extra traffic generated by the move to Ringaskiddy would lead to congestion at the periphery of the city.

In addition, Bord Pleanála said the lack of a rail connection to Ringaskiddy would be a retrograde step, as it would lead to more container traffic on the roads.

“The need for a new container terminal and multi-purpose roll-on, roll-off berth is urgent and Bord Pleanála had already accepted that our application clearly qualified for processing under the terms of the Strategic Infrastructure Act 2006,” the port chief said.

“The Tivoli container facility reached capacity earlier than expected in 2006 and so the need for re-location is critical to the survival of the economy in Cork and Munster.”

He said port officials would take some time to study the APB report, and may look at resubmitting a scaled-down plan for Ringaskiddy.

More than 500 submissions were made to the APB oral hearing. One of the main objectors was the Port of Waterford, which welcomed the rejection of the proposal.

A spokesman said: “We contended that the application made by Port of Cork was ill-conceived, unviable and unsustainable — assertions for which we were publicly pilloried by the proposers of this scheme who wrongly labelled our action as ‘anti-competitive’ and ‘vexatious’.

The more sustainable option of building on what we have will considerably reduce environmental impacts and allow Ireland as a whole to better co-ordinate ports capacity.”

Mr Keating responded by claiming this was another example of the Port of Waterford “attempting to interfere with competitive issues in the Irish ports industry.”

Cork county manager, Martin Riordan, said the decision could have implications for the building of a new Cork-Ringaskiddy road, which was needed to serve existing industry in the lower harbour.

He said the council had supported the port’s relocation.