Eamon Ryan repeats calls for curb on Dublin Port expansion in favour of nature reserve and housing
https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/eamon-ryan-repeats-calls-for-curb-on-dublin-port-expansion-in-favour-of-nature-reserve-and-housing/a1774901311.html
Posted by Banania2020
17 Comments
Build a new better city.
“Develop rail freight”.
To where, Eamon?
Nearly everything is for distribution in the greater Dublin area. So are we to move it by rail only to send it back in the trucks we said we were removing by building the rail?
You can either move the port or build a Dublin orbital tunnel to keep everything moving. “Build rail” strikes me as classic fuzzy thinking, completely unserious.
He’s 100% correct on this. Having a major port completely encapsulated inside a capital city with almost no means to build major new freight handling capacity into the port is a disaster.
We either need a new deepwater port north of Dublin, or significant expansions of Cork and Shannon facilities for freight. The new All-Island rail expansions (especially quad tracking) will significantly expand rail freight capacity, but trying to run most of the country’s freight through the city via truck is mad and has to stop.
And that’s ignoring the fact that Dublin Port is ~500 acres of incredibly valuable land in the middle of Dublin, and could singlehandledly resolve most of the housing issues in the country in a few years while also providing massive new green amenity areas.
To be fair there is a bit of logic to moving the port out of the centre of such heavily populated area. If a lot of the goods/freight is going on the further destinations elsewhere then dragging it through/around Dublin doesn’t make much sense.
The right thing to do would be to have a purpose built port that is properly serviced with rail and roads away from a major urban area.
Doesn’t he understand we need Dublin port expansion to bring in Briquettes from Germany!!
Cant we develop another port city on the east/southern coast? Help spread industry and the economic base?
We need a few residential zoned sky scrapers in Dublin city centre/ port. No addition to congestion, no disgruntled local residents.
He is right
Around the port is a disaster at the moment and sticking more heavy god traffic into it is not yeh answer
We have other options
He’s not wrong. Its an incredibly stupid place to have a port, and then to be doubling down on it is extra stupid.
Aren’t we lucky that there’s another large port on the East Coast that’s not in the middle of a major city and is closer to mainland Europe.
I normally disagree with everything Ryan says but even a broken clock is right occasionally. That said his party are enthusiasts for concentrating everything in Dublin..
He’s well able to discuss planning issues when it’s not the airport passenger cap. So he’s stopping cars, then he blocked planes, now he’s onto boats. We spent an absolute fortune building a giant tunnel to what will be a park, a week after the countries biggest supporter (apple) called for more infrastructure. Most blinkered man I’ve ever come across.
Or crazy idea, build up in the city center.
Fair play to him, at least he’s sticking to the guiding principles of the Green Party.
4/5 stars, would vote for him again.
I don’t think Dublin port is feasible as a deep water port needed for wind farm construction and maintenance either, Drogheda port makes more sense to expand, it would also be a shot in the arm for theocal economy
“Dublin Port Company is a self-financing, private limited company wholly-owned by the State, whose business is to manage Dublin Port, Ireland’s premier port.”
So it’s completely owned by the government but the government can’t get involved? It’s bananas.
I am not fan of Eamon Ryan but he is right about, there is freight at Dublin port for months that can’t be moved out without closing roads and bridges. Having Dublin port expand is kicking the can down the road. However I suspect he would object to all the alternatives to expanding the port like moving it elsewhere as it would ultimately affect a lot of jobs in Dublin. (It is a huge step in gentrification). And there would be the pesky need to build a road network to the new port something he and his party would object to.