State to sell off port property

PROPERTIES surplus to the needs of the State’s main ports will be sold off for commercial or amenity development, Communications, Marine and Natural Resources Minister Dermot Ahern said yesterday.

And dormant ports which have no further potential for commercial trade could be transferred to local authorities subject to detailed development proposals from the local authorities.

The ports designated commercially dormant include Ballina, Baltimore, Skibbereen, Dingle, Kilrush, Westport and Wexford. Mr Ahern yesterday published the High Level Review of Ports and the report of the Government-established Port Estates Task Force.