MARY GALLAGHER,
Sir, - In February 2001 the Government established a task force to examine, inter alia, land access to Ireland's ports and their role in the supply chain for freight moving in and out of Ireland. The task force comprised 19 experts, including the undersigned, on all aspects of maritime transport. It reported this Spring and made 47 recommendations.
Ireland's ports play a pivotal role in the success of the Irish economy. They handle 99 per cent by volume of all goods traded. The efficiency of these ports and the quality of transport links to them is of obvious and critical importance. Of the task force's recommendations, none was more essential than that the Government establish a Department of Transport charged with integrating the development and implementation of policy for all transport modes. The Government is to be commended for at last establishing such a Department, but we are utterly dismayed that it has ignored maritime transport, leaving it outside the remit of the new Department.
A key element of of successful transport policy is the effective integration of all forms of transport (witness, for example, the ultra efficiency and competitiveness of all aspects of the Dutch transport network). Roads, rail lines, airports and ports should all be developed as part of a coherent framework. Choosing to ignore one mode of transport is a recipe for both fragmentation and inefficiency and renders the transport chain only as strong as its weakest link.
Sadly, then, it is likely that the development of Irish road, rail and air transport will not be co-ordinated with the development of ports and maritime transport. It is nonsense to suggest that the appointment of a Minister of State or the establishment of interdepartmental co-ordinating committees will remedy this shortcoming. The Government has chosen to ignore the expert advice of people who know what they are talking about. The effects of this policy fiasco, while not immediately obvious, will have significantly restrict our economy as Ireland continues to lose competitiveness. - Yours, etc.,
Dr JOHN MANGAN,
Irish Management Institute,
(Task Force Chairman),
MARY GALLAGHER,
Stena Line,
JERRY KIERSEY,
Chair of the Transport
Users' Group,
REG McCABE,
Irish Business and
Employers' Confederation,
DEREK SLOAN,
Norfolk Line,
NOELLE CANTON,
Irish Ship Agents' Association,
JOHN NOLAN,
Dublin Port Stevedores Ltd.,
Sandyford Road,
Dublin 16.