Report: Ports investment needed if Ireland wants direct calls

Report: Ports investment needed if Ireland wants direct calls A report published Wednesday by the Institute of International Trade of Ireland, the research division of the Irish Exporters Association, recommended that the country must invest in port terminals and equipment to attract direct deep-sea services and accommodate increasingly larger feeder ships.
   The 'North Atlantic Trade & Transport Study' said that sufficient volume exists for a direct service to North America, but that transatlantic ship owners and operators have shown little interest in the Irish market.
   According to the study, 20 percent of Northern Ireland's exports in 2005 were to the United States and Canada, while that figure was 19 percent from the Republic of Ireland. Combined, exports from the Island to North America totaled 35 billion euros ($45.6 billion).
   'Being on Europe's outer periphery and closer to North America, we should have the edge over the rest of Europe. But we are not able to capitalize on our geographical advantage because there are no direct lift-on/lift-off or roll-on/roll-off shipping services from the Island to North America,' said George Quigley, chairman of Bombardier when launching the study in Belfast.
   'Even if it had done nothing else, this study would have performed a key service by drawing attention to the crucial significance of port development.
   'There is little point in fine-tuning out internal infrastructure on the island and neglecting the gateways which are simply indispensable for what must become our increasingly deeper integration into the global economy,' Quigley said.