THE FRIDAY INTERVIEW/Michael Hanahoe, Dun Laoghaire Harbour Company :'THE HARBOUR was part of my playground when I was growing up," says Michael Hanahoe, chief executive of the Dún Laoghaire Harbour Company, gesturing toward the Harbour Lodge board room window and out into the murky day beyond.
"One of my first jobs was carrying the bags of people coming off the mail boat whose destination was my mother's guesthouse in Rosmeen Gardens. So for me, being offered the job in the Dún Laoghaire Harbour Company was like coming home," he says.
But Hanahoe is about to say goodbye to the harbour, having handed in his notice as head of the State-owned commercial entity that oversees its development and heritage.
"It's time to move on," says Hanahoe, 62, who has held the position since the company was set up in 1997, a result of the 1996 Harbours Act that corporatised Ireland's major harbours.
The timing of his exit was prompted by the collapse of a planned major development of the harbour's Carlisle Pier, which included more than 200 apartments, a 127-bed hotel and a retail walkway. In May, Sisk Builders, one of the scheme's partners, pulled out, citing an uncertain economy and planning risks.
It was "a big disappointment" for Hanahoe, who had agreed to stay on so that he could see the scheme through at least until the planning stage: "When that project fell through, I decided it was time for me to go."
The plans were not without controversy. A Save Our Seafront campaign was mounted by the activist Richard Boyd Barrett, who described it as a "shameful" attempt to privatise a public space and make it the "exclusive property of the super-wealthy".
It was also very expensive. A Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council special zoning objective called for both landmark architecture of international significance and a national cultural attraction to be built on the pier.
"We ended up with a scheme that was going to cost up to €150 million. That meant that there had to be a sizeable commercial element to the scheme to pay for the non-commercial elements. The project was always marginal and with the downturn, it just killed it off altogether."
Downturns and controversies aside, the harbour company is looking at alternative plans for the pier, although there are no specific proposals in place yet.
"Something is definitely going to have to be done," says Hanahoe.
So what about the objections?
"Carlisle Pier is a public space, but it's never been a publicly accessible space. For 150 years, it was a ferry terminal for the mail boat and the only people allowed on the pier were passengers from the boat. For the last 10 years, it has been a derelict site in the middle of the harbour, accessible to nobody."
The now scrapped plans had included significant public access, he adds, and any new plan will have to do the same - and wash its face financially, of course.
Commercial activities in the harbour allow the company to finance improvements to public facilities, he insists. These include a €5 million outlay on resurfacing the 1,300 metre-long east pier. But it is "a balancing act". Overcommercialisation would "risk damaging the atmosphere, the ambience".
Last year, commercial activities generated turnover of €10.7 million, up 4 per cent, but this masks a 2 per cent decline in shipping revenues from the harbour's only ferry operator, Stena Line.
Shipping revenues have dropped over the last six or seven years as the cheap flights era took hold and the elimination of duty-free inspired "booze cruises" in 1998 didn't help. But "a slight reversal" is now happening and passenger numbers, at about 1 million a year, are levelling off.
The future of Dún Laoghaire as a ferry port depends on more than just passenger interest, however. It depends on Stena Line. The ferry operator's contract runs out in 2011 and talks have begun.
"Our primary concern is to get a long-term commitment from Stena Line to the port that will extend to the next generation of fast ferries," says Hanahoe.
He hopes that the contract will be renewed before he steps down at the end of next April. But with 60 per cent of the company's revenues still coming from Stena Line, its profitable future is predicated on keeping the ferries coming.
"If it's not Stena Line, then it has to be somebody else," he says.
Hanahoe's commercial nous springs from his career history, which encompasses a 17-year spell as finance director of pharma group Warner Lambert, from where he was recruited by the harbour company's first chairman, One51's Philip Lynch.
"We had been organisationally part of the civil service and he was determined to inculcate an enterprise culture into the company... so I think he was anxious to get somebody who understood the numbers," says Hanahoe.
As an avid reader of history, he also has a natural affinity to the company's heritage role.
Construction on the harbour began in 1816 and was completed in 1840. It was originally conceived as a refuge for boats resting at anchor while they waited for the tide to allow them up the Liffey. As the steam age arrived, Dún Laoghaire developed as the Irish end for passenger and mail traffic between Ireland and Britain.
"The proud boast of the City of Dublin Steam Packet company, which ran the service at the time, was that you could travel from the second city of the empire to the first city of the empire without getting your feet wet," says Hanahoe.
Isaac Butt and Charles Stewart Parnell used the service, while Michael Collins and his team left Ireland from Dún Laoghaire in 1922 to negotiate the Free State treaty. For most of the 20th century, the port was associated with mass emigration, when economic gloom forced people abroad.
The economy's current dive into recession, while it may have helped sink the Carlisle Pier scheme, won't scuttle proposals to construct an additional 900-berth marina (there are 833 berths in the existing marina, making it the largest in Ireland). The final decision won't be taken until 2009 and it could then take up to five years to build, at which point it will be ready to "accommodate demand from the Celtic Tiger Mark II".
Hanahoe is a member of the new Dublin Bay Task Force, a group set up in July to draw up a "sustainable vision" for the future use of the entire bay area, from Howth Head to Dalkey.
"It's important that we get the emphasis right. Flora and fauna is important. Bird life is important. But the Bay is also important as a public amenity. Some of the ideas, like a Sandycove to Sutton cycleway, I think are wonderful."
The big question, which will be examined by a separate Government study, is what happens to Dublin Port. Some observers believe it should be moved, perhaps to Bremore in north Dublin, where the Drogheda Port Company plans to build a new port in partnership with private interests.
"What happens to Dublin Port is not something I want to get involved in, you know. That's a matter for Dublin Port management and the Government."
With two grandchildren having just learned to walk, and consequently "doing everything at 100 miles per hour", Hanahoe has other things to keep him occupied.
"Lots of people would not see giving up a pensionable public service job in the middle of a recession as being a smart career move, but my focus in the future is not going to be on the jobs market."
Name:Michael Hanahoe.
Position:Chief executive, Dún Laoghaire Harbour Company.
Age:62.
Lives:Blackrock, Co Dublin.
Family:Married to Margaret, they have three daughters and two grandchildren.
Background and education:He was born in Northern Ireland but grew up in Dún Laoghaire, attending the Presentation College in Glasthule. He got a B.Comm at University College Dublin.
Career:He trained as a certified accountant at Unilever in Britain, where he worked for six years. He was also chief accountant for the Irish Press group "in the days that they were making money" and was finance director for tractor makers Massey Ferguson and pharmaceutical group Warner Lambert (now part of Pfizer). He joined the Dún Laoghaire Harbour Company in 1997.
Interests:He plays tennis and is a big fan of the Leinster rugby team. His love of history includes a special interest in Romanesque and Gothic church architecture.
Something you might expect:He is proud of the harbour's historical legacy and describes it as "one of the finest man-made harbours in the world" and an "extraordinary architectural and engineering achievement".
Something that might surprise:He had no nautical experience when he was recruited as the harbour company's top man.
