Foynes Port Company has described as mischievous reports that the company chairman resigned because the board opposed his proposals to bring in outside consultants.
The company says it has not been given reasons for the resignation and calls reports that the resignation was linked to unusually high pay and pension entitlements of harbour employees as equally mischievous.
The west Limerick-based harbour authority on the Shannon estuary held a four-hour emergency meeting on Saturday following the announcement by the Minister for the Marine and Natural Resources, Dr Woods, of an investigation into pay levels, structures and related matters at the port.
The chairman of the port company, established in April as one of 12 to replace the old harbour boards, Mr Sean Hanratty, an industrialist, resigned because he alleged he failed to get board support to examine salary scales and structures at the port.
The Foynes board was not available for media queries last week and its first public comment was in a lengthy statement after Saturday's board meeting.
The statement, signed by the deputy chairman, Mr Michael Hanley, says the chairman's proposals on consultants were being considered by a sub-committee which was in the course of referring the matter back to the board for the purpose of choosing suitable consultants. It was clear the question of consultants was in the course of reaching a conclusion.
The statement continued: "In relation to the pay and conditions of employees, the company wishes to state that it would not be appropriate to comment on the pay and conditions of individual employees. However, the employees concerned who were mischievously referred to in the reports as secretarial are in fact officials of the company . . .
"The company wishes to state that the resignation of the chairman could not have had any connection with the rates of pay of the employees in the company, since the rates of pay are linked with those in the public service and the other major commercial harbours of the State as a consequence of being fixed when the harbour was a public harbour under the former Harbours Act 1946. In these circumstances, the pay and conditions of the present harbour officials are not within the remit of the board of the new port company and accordingly could not have been linked to the resignation of the chairman.
"The media has reported that the chairman has said that he resigned because it was clear from an early date that he would be unable to fulfil the commercial mandate of the Harbours Act, but no reasons were given by the chairman as to why that was so.
"The board accepts that the chairman must have resigned for good reasons and those reasons have not been given to the board. The initial vote of confidence which preceded the chairman's resignation had in fact been called for by the chairman himself."
The board declared that it "has nothing to fear from an investigation of its management by the Minister for the Marine and Natural Resources [Dr Woods] and indeed welcomes the Minister's interest in the affairs of the harbour".
Tonnage throughput at Foynes in 1976 was 519,513 and in 1996 it was 1,363,535. The net registered tonnage in 1976 was 245,182, and in 1996 it was 749,682. The surplus in 1976 was £55,119 and in 1996 was £667,898.
The board suggests it achieved this with low overheads.
The Minister has engaged an independent consultant, Mr Dermot Rochford, to carry out the examination at Foynes and he will visit the company tomorrow.