In a confidential discussion document prepared by the Irish Ports Association (IPA) cite that the Exchequer should provide money for infrastructure development at Ireland's commercial ports.

The draft document, circulated amongst port CEOs last week, heavily criticises Government policy on Irish ports as both "misguided" and "naive".

The document, seen by the Sunday Independent, highlights what it describes as an "excessive focus on EU grants" in national ports policy introduced in 2013 by then-Minister for Transport Leo Varadkar that continued a ban on the use of Exchequer funding for major infrastructure to cope with capacity constraints at major ports like Dublin and Rosslare.

"This [the ban on State funding] will have to change if Irish ports are to provide the capacity that will be needed in the future," it states, adding that port infrastructure projects do not make commercial sense but do make economic sense.

More on this Independent.ie reports