Dublin Port Company does not propose a major infill of Dublin Bay – the proposal to reclaim 52 acres in the vicinity of the north docks and Clontarf, “represents just 0.38 per cent of the total area of the Bay” the Port Company told Bord Pleanla today.
Addressing an oral hearing into the Port Company proposals, chief executive – Enda Connellan said Dublin Port was “of national significance and of key importance to the achievement of a competitive, dynamic and efficient economy”.
Mr Connellan said the port company throughput accounted for more than €35billion of the State’s trade in 2008. However he said capacity was a crucial factor and the port needed deeper berths to accommodate bigger ships.
He said the proposed expansion would allow for an increase of up to 50 per cent in capacity for unitized containers which was crucial to the national economy.
He maintained economic GDP activity in the State would return to “a more sustainable growth rate of 3.5 percent per annum” by 2011 and he calculated that unitized container traffic through the port would then be growing at a rate of about 4.5 percent per annum
The application is however being opposed by a range of environmentalists, public representatives and residents in the Clontarf and wider Dublin Bay area who point out that alongside the 52 acres of infill, Dublin Port requires at least that much area again, for pontoons, constant dredging and ship movements in the vicinity of the proposed infill.
Objectors An Taisce, Dublin Bay Watch and Clontarf residents association told the opening of the inquiry today that the development was in breach of a number of EU directives.
