Members of Wexford County Council have unanimously passed a motion calling on the government to look at amalgamating Rosslare Europort with Belview Port in Waterford.
The motion on these Irish Ports, was brought by Independent councillor Ger Carthy, who proposed that, in light of Brexit and other market influences, an amalgamation of the south east ports would be beneficial.
Carthy called for “strategic investment in the ports, in particular through the purchase of additional land for the expansion of Rosslare Europort and the advance construction of the Rosslare Europort Harbour Access Road” as well as “an amalgamation of the ports structure and governance to create a Tier 1 port as a combined entity”. He also called for the combined entity to be designated as “the service port for offshore renewables in the Irish and Celtic Seas”.
The motion found favour with Cllr Carthy’s colleagues. Fianna Fáil councillor John Fleming lamented that Rosslare had been designated a Tier 2 port in the first place, laying blame with Tánaiste Leo Varadkar, who was Minister for Transport at the time. He said that the study didn’t include passenger numbers and that it was his belief that Rosslare could have been Tier 1.
Wexford People has more on the south-east ports.
