Report says port companies must supply information

IRELAND’S STATE-OWNED port companies should be made compellable to answer questions about their performance, a parliamentary watchdog has concluded.

The Oireachtas Joint Committee on Transport yesterday published a report on the sector, which found that the 11 major ports in Ireland needed to be of world-class standard in order for Ireland to retain a competitive edge in exports, and because of the crucial importance of ports to the Irish economy.

At the launch of the report yesterday, committee chairman Frank Fahey and Fine Gael member Fergus O’Dowd were both critical of the refusal of representatives of the Shannon Foynes Port Company to answer certain questions when they appeared before the committee at earlier hearings. The port company’s executives said they were precluded from answering questions because of a confidentiality clause included in a High Court settlement.

Mr Fahey said the transport committee should have powers of oversight over port companies and said he would seek new powers to compel them to answer questions about their performance and corporate governance. He recognised there were sensitivities surrounding commercial information but that there was no reason to refuse information of a historical and non-sensitive nature.

“The committee will be pursuing the need for additional powers to compel State agencies to answer questions which are of a non-sensitive current nature.”

Mr O’Dowd said he was deeply concerned about the lack of powers of compellability.

“We sought information from Shannon Foynes on the annual accounts for 2004 and 2006, on the sales of land and money expended on behalf of the port.

“We have got no answers. There are other issues like the income of different people. There is a lack of transparency on this issue as well.

“Either committees of the Dáil work or they do not work. We have a crisis in that a State body is refusing to answer questions in relation to their annual reports,” said Mr O’Dowd.

The report also recommended that the Minister for Transport should report to the Oireachtas annually on the performance of the sector.