GRIFFIN: EUROPORT A SLEEPING GIANT
‘ THIS is a new beginning and I think with four TDs if they come together and do this jointly, it’s a great time for this.’
For former chairman of the Rosslare Harbour Development Board Liam Griffin, Rosslare Europort is a ‘no-brainer’ for expansion.
He said: ‘It’s a sleeping giant within this corner of the whole south east. In the 1800s ships started to come and go. Drive on, drive off revolutionised it and was a game changer but that potential was never maximised. We haven’t been able to do that which was a failure of planning. The ferries was a game changer so Verona Murphy is absolutely 100 per cent correct about activity moving to Rosslare from Dublin Port,’ said Liam.
Mr Griffin said 50 years of missed opportunities and political and governmental failure has seen the port’s growth and potential stymied.
‘We were also hit in the 1970s by the fact that Rosslare was going to be a main artery to Belfast, with arteries off it along the way. The road was never done and mysteriously the motorway went to Waterford when Martin Cullen was promoted within Fianna Fáil. We didn’t get the road we wanted into what is an international europort. We underused it and didn’t have the infrastructure to develop it. It was a complete and utter failure of planning and imagination.’
The hotelier said the IDA never realised the asset they were sleeping on.
‘Most of the traffic from the roll-on, roll-off coming in through Rosslare was headed to the West of Ireland and wasn’t even stopping anywhere close to Rosslare so that was a failure of policy. We have put in absolutely nothing to support or generate trade for our own ferries so Irish Ferries left and went back to Dublin.
‘It didn’t make sense to most people sending more ferries into Dublin Port which was already congested. That port got planning permission and you wouldn’t get planning permission for a house in Dublin.’
Mr Griffin said with the Green Party the most likely to get into power with Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael and with four Wexford TDs at the negotiations table, the timing was never better to highlight the need to develop Rosslare Europort.
‘The Green agenda is a world agenda and we have all been told about the carbon footprint agenda. With the Covid-19 situation there is less pollution due to the drop in industrial output so it’s a no brainer for Rosslare to take ships from Dublin Port. We are fighting a rearguard action but this is where we are now. I think as someone who has been involved heavily in this in the past that this is now the time. The road has come as far as Oylegate and that road now has to come as far as the port. It’s 50 years too late, but hey better late than never!’
He said when the new road to Rosslare Europort is completed truck drivers will be able to drive from Belfast to Rosslare without passing through traffic lights.
‘That road has to finish and then we need to look at how we can maximise the port of Rosslare so some kind of structure needs to be there on a daily basis so a change within CIE is needed and a new board [for the Europort]. You can’t sit there and wait for stuff to come.’
He said: ‘Admittedly efforts are being made to develop the port but it needs a much stronger focus. We have four politicians in the discussions for government formation. Over the years some good work has been done in Rosslare Harbour but not enough joined up work.
‘This port didn’t need one solution it needed umpteen solutions. You had CIE running the port, Wexford County Council acting separately and politicians acting separately again. It needed a coordinated effort. We put a plan forward in the 80s to copy the Shannon model. Shannon became a central hub and there was an airport focus and Rosslare Harbour was the ideal for a port focus but it didn’t get enough support from politicians and CIE, whose main priority was rail.’