Deep-water port could create thousands of jobs in the North East

A NEW billion-euro port development near Bremore has the potential to create tens of thousands of jobs in the region according to directors behind the project.

The development, which will be the state’s first major deep-water port, will be near the Bremore area in Meath, between Drogheda and North County Dublin.

A recent meeting of Laytown/Bettystown Municipal District was told the Danish architect firm, Henning Larsen, will develop and construct the “world-class deep-water multi-modal energy port”, which plans to have its first berths open between 2028 and 2030.

The high-level vision for the new Bremore Port include facilities for offshore wind turbine storage and assembly, as well as green hydrogen facilities.

The new facility, a joint venture between Drogheda Port Company and the Ronan Group, will “play a pivotal role in enhancing Ireland’s maritime capabilities, renewable energy production, and facilitating international trade.”

A new 'innovation district' is also part of the vision for the development designed to foster economic growth, facilitate research and development and provide new residential areas with essential community services.

Rory Williams, director of Bremore Port, who gave a presentation of the project along with fellow director Joe Hiney says there is "a very strong demand" for additional capacity in all Irish ports. The development is in the pre planning stage with an application expected to be lodged in 2025/2026.

"If you look at what Dublin port is saying, we are saying the same thing, we agree that there is limited capacity for particular types of products and scenarios on the East Coast," said Mr Williams.

"We looked at 14 different sites along the east coast, from Wexford up to the border and looked at it across a whole range of criteria from a maritime perspective, a land logistics perspective and the economic impact perspective," explained the project director.

"The one that came up as being the best is just north of Bremore Head. The deep water in the outer harbour is natural so we need minimal amount of dredging other than dredging to shape the space for deep water vessels and that is the trend in shipping they are getting bigger over time."

Economic opportunity will come with the major piece of infrastructure according to Mr Williams who said:

"There is an opportunity there to connect to the Hinterland because it is right beside the M1, it is right beside the railway, there is no city to travel through and our engineering design is to route the road connections straight to the M1, avoiding the existing road and village infrastructure," said Mr Williams.

"This will be a world class port dealing with mainland Europe,"he added.

"As with all ports they are a catalyst for economic development. There is an opportunity regionally to take on the objectives of the Meath economic plan, to take on the objectives of the M1 Corridor and show that this could be a contribution towards those goals."

The Bremore Port director said that a new purpose built port is imperative to benefit from the vast potential of offshore wind and for Ireland to achieve its renewable energy targets. He said that the development could see the delivery of tens of thousands of jobs in the future adding that an academic in the field estimated that these new industries could bring Ireland somewhere between 40,000 to 60,000 jobs in the future.

The meeting heard how maintaining and protecting the natural environment is also priority for the project.

"The mandate is not to interfere with the current landscape, it’s finding a way of blending the two. There is an enormous opportunity to create what the architects from Copenhagen are saying there are three potential corridors here.

"One is up and down the North South in terms of the beach because we intend to bridge to the port so that the beach is untouched, in fact, we would see a huge opportunity here for water sports and services, coastal walkways and board walks."

Fine Gael Cllr Sharon Tolan welcomed the plans but outlined that Laytown and Bettystown residents had concerns over how it could impact the area.

"It is an exciting project and one that could be a game changer for the whole region in terms of employment and economics,"she said.

"The question and the biggest fear people have is how is this going to look.

"Since we have banned vehicles on the beach it has improved the amenity incredibly so I would hate to see that impacted."

Fine Gael Cllr Paddy Meade said: " I represent County Meath on the Eastern Midlands Regional Assembly (EMRA) and I always point out that If you look at Sydney or New York or a lot of the big cities in the world, those cities used to have harbours in their city centres and over time they had the wisdom to move the harbours out of the city centre and not only was it good for the harbour but it also freed up an awful lot of land.

"I always make the case that you have 12,00 acres there around the port which could be utilised if we were to completely move the port to Bremore."

Fianna Fail Cllr Stephen McKee said: "The project itself its very exciting it has huge potential for this area in terms of the Dublin - Belfast economic corridor. It is a very interesting project and anything that is promoting jobs into Co Meath has to be welcomed."

The meeting was told that Bremore Port intends to put a permanent community liaison officer in place along with establishing a community forum for resident associations in the broader area. They said extensive consultation with the public over the next year is top priority.