GRIFFIN: EUROPORT
‘ 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.