€300m port move €300m would mean huge economic boost

A proposed plan for the transfer of a projected €300 million deepwater port from its original intended site near Balbriggan into Meath would, if it comes to fruition, provide the county with a major national infrastructural centrepiece and give a new impetus to job creation. Pre-planning discussions between Meath County Council and Treasury Holdings (which, together with Drogheda Port Company, are the main backers for the port project) with a view to locating a new €300 million port at Gormanston, have already been held, informed sources have indicated to the Meath Chronicle. Reports that the consortium involved in the project have contemplated moving the proposed container port to Gormanston in a bid to avoid an extensive complex of neolithic passage tombs have been circulating since last year. A senior figure in the transport sector had confirmed to this newspaper that such a move was being put on the agenda. Because of the continuing downturn in the economy, speculation on the project has focused on its job-creating potential. This is expected to depend on whether Treasury and the Drogheda Port Company would intend to build just a deepwater port and ancillary port facilities or whether, in effect, they would envisage the construction along the Gormanston coast of a 'mini-town', encompassing hotels, retails outlets and general support facilities for a port of its size. Although some preliminary discussions have been held between the proposers of the project and the county council, it is thought that any firm plan for provision of a new port would go straight to Bord Pleanala because of its implications for strategic infrastructural development. Certain major decisions involving national ports policy would also have to be made at Government level, it is understood. Meath County Councillor Tommy Reilly said that the proposed port project should be pushed through as fast as possible at Gormanston by Minister for Transport Noel Dempsey and Justice Minister Dermot Ahern in order to give the north-east region a badly needed boost in job prospects. Cllr Reilly said it was imperative that new jobs be created now and he saw the port complex plan as "an outstanding opportunity for major industrial expansion for the counties around the site". Treasury Holdings said this week that one of the options now being considered was to "shift it off Bremore headland (in north Co Dublin)" for archaeological reasons. Archaeologists had warned from an early stage that a significant archaeological complex, perhaps matching the passage tombs discoveries at Newgrange, Knowth and Dowth, was located in the fields near the sea at Bremore. Treasury has confirmed that it has done a significant amount of preliminary work, including archaeological investigations. No final decision on a transfer to Gormanston has yet been made. The Gormanston site is partly covered by an EU-designated special protection area (SPA) for wild birds and there is also believed to another archaeological complex at Gormanston, although this is not regarded as significant as the one at Bremore. Treasury Holdings will now be taking on an environmental specialist to assess the Gormanston option. A spokesman for the company said the country needed a deepwater port and quoted the IDA as saying that Ireland was losing projects because it did not have one. Cllr Reilly said that the news that the port plan might be switched from Bremore to Gormanston was not altogether new. "We were able to pick up that information from the Meath Chronicle last year. What we need now is political action from the very top to ensure that this plan goes through," he said. "This port could be one of the biggest projects to hit Ireland in a very long time. I am asking Minister for Transport Noel Dempsey and the Minister for Justice Dermot Ahern (in whose constituency Gormanston will be located in the next general election) to get together as soon as possible with Meath County Council to advance this project as fast as possible." Cllr Reilly added: "We are talking about the creation of thousands of jobs here, first of all in the construction phase but also in employment in the port itself and the spin-off for surrounding areas." The Treasury company is believed to have acquired options to purchase several land holdings at Bremore before entering into partnership with the Drogheda Port Company. However, it is believed it has no options for land at Gormanston. Cllr Reilly said this particular period of time was crucial to a project of this kind. "We are talking about the acquisition of large tracts of land and prices have come down over the past year or so. It is also a fact that construction costs have come down. I am viewing this proposed project as a massive boost for employment. We must get our people back to work and this is one of the outstanding projects that could provide the impetus for this," he added. Cllr Reilly said that reports about the transfer to Gormanston "have already met with the usual complaints from An Taisce". He claimed the organisatioon had "cost County Meath thousands of jobs in their continuous objections to every plan for industry that is brought forward".