Minister raises climate and housing concerns about Dublin Port expansion

Transport Minister Eamon Ryan is to meet with the board of Dublin Port Company over its expansion plans after criticising the proposals as contrary to the State’s aims.

The port company’s Project 3FM includes a plan to build Ireland’s largest container terminal in front of the ESB’s power station in Poolbeg, and a new 190m bridge with a lifting section over the River Liffey.

Project 3FM, the final phase of the port’s plan to double its capacity by 2040, is out for public consultation until next Friday.

Green Party leader Mr Ryan has written to the chair of Dublin Port Company Jerry Grant to outline his “significant” concerns that the final phase of expansion goes against the State’s aims for climate action and nature, housing, sustainable transport and the circular economy.

Mr Ryan said he is “troubled” that the plan remains reliant on “unsustainable” transport and logistic systems, particularly with the reliance on increasing road haulage in and out of Dublin City without using rail freight.

Tanaiste and Foreign Affairs Minister Micheal Martin said the issue has not been discussed in detail at Government level.

The plan provides for a doubling of capacity at the port to 77 million tonnes by 2040, or 350,000 containers each year, which will be stored in two newly-constructed large docks.

Mr Ryan said some of the port land in Dublin should instead be used for the provision of housing and the nature reserve on the Poolbeg peninsula should be extended, rather than using the space for container storage.

“I have a (Land Development Agency) report on my desk that shows that Dublin Port has land which could be used for housing – homes that are close to the city and which are close to existing transport,” he said.

“Estimates are that port lands, some of which are currently being used to park new cars, could be used to provide up to 1,200 new homes for young people and families. The provision of housing for the future is not within Dublin Port’s plan – and it absolutely needs to be.”

He also argued that Dublin Bay needs to be protected as a Unesco biosphere and that land around the Poolbeg site should be used to extend the nature reserve and playing fields that the public use.

He added: “I don’t believe we need all of this additional capacity.

“I can’t see what we will be consuming double of in the next 17 years, even taking into account projected population increase.

“We will have moved away from importing fossil fuels for transport and energy, and the circular economy, one of the State’s strategic cornerstones into the future, will mean that we should be less reliant on imports.”

The minister is to meet the board of Dublin Port Company on May 26 to discuss his views on the port’s future.

Speaking on RTE Radio, asked whether his coalition colleagues in Fine Gael and Fianna Fail agree with his objection, Mr Ryan suggested it is in line with Government policy.

“I’m in constant touch with my colleagues in what we’re doing on our transport strategies, and, yes, it is Government policy,” he said.

He said the national planning framework aims to provide “better balanced regional development”.

“We are investing and I got great Government support for investing, in Cork, Rosslare, Shannon Foynes, Waterford ports, so that we don’t just see all the development of the east coast of the country.”

Mr Martin said on Friday that the issue “has not been discussed in great detail at Government level”.

He said the Cabinet sub-committee on climate change met on Thursday and discussed the capacity of ports in relation to wind energy.

“We’re awaiting business plans from various ports in respect of their capacity to provide for the offshore wind,” he added.

“Again, it will need more detailed analysis from the Government perspective in terms of Dublin Port’s plan, so we haven’t been appraised in detail in respect of that.”