Sir, - Frank McDonald's interesting article on Dublin Bay (The Irish Times, August 6th), in which he highlighted a practical way to deal with the Dublin Port Company's expansion needs, is timely.
Dublin must be the only capital city which is permitted to have a city-centre location for its port's container business. This fact greatly contributes to Dublin's chaotic traffic.
At an international seminar on port area redevelopment which I attended in Amsterdam in 1989, it was pointed out that with ever-increasing advances in technology associated with the transport industry and the need for meeting competitive challenges, whole ports or sections of them have had to be relocated, sometimes across a river or even a new location. New York, Liverpool and London ports are prime examples.
The Dublin Port company has been disposing of port land at East Point for real estate ventures. At the same time it says it needs more port land from Dublin Bay. This is unacceptable. It violates the environmental rights of over a quarter-of-a-million people.
Mr Frank Fahey, the Minister for the Marine, should reject the Dublin Port company's third 52-acre relocation application because it ignored the demand from Brendan Daly, a previous Minister for the Marine, that it prepare a co-ordinated plan for Dublin Port vis-a-vis Dublin Bay. It also ignored Mr Daly's condition that it must consult with resident associations before it submitted another application. It waited until after November 1st, 1999, the last date for concerned persons to make submissions about this application.
Instead Mr Fahey should tell the port company to enter into joint ventures for its container business with Greenore and/or Arklow Harbour Authorities, where there are deep-water facilities.
The containers could be taken by CIE railway flats to a port marshalling yard on a greenfield site well west of Dublin City. The Clondalkin proposal, which Frank McDonald mentioned, was a non-starter because it was too close to the city. This proposal, if acted upon, would eliminate the need for 8,000 container lorries having to cut across Dublin's traffic every day.
My suggestion is in keeping with the Government's National Development Plan (2000-2006) and its emphasis on the need for regional development. - Yours, etc.,
Sean Dublin Bay Loftus, Seafield Avenue, Clontarf, Dublin 3.