Cruise Liner schedule for 2010

As you can see, my New Year resolution to keep this blog updated regularly went with most other such resolutions and I haven't posted here for a full two months!

I'm making no rash promises now, but I have something to post at last!

The Port of Cork cruise liner schedule has been published and is available on the port company's website at .

Once again it looks like a great year for liner visits with over 50 confirmed already including the Cunard line's new Queen Victoria and two visits from Royal Carribbean line's Independence of the Seas. Most of the ships are, as usual, coming to the cruise liner terminal at Cobh's Deepwater Quay. (NOTE: the car park beside the Deepwater Quay is currently full of huge water-filled potholes, someone needs to take note!).

Other port activity includes the long-awaited return of a direct car ferry service between Cork and the UK. Originaly due to start on March 1st, the arrival of the mv Julia has been postponed for a week as the ship isn't quite ready yet. The new service is a very welcome development - better late than never!

There's also a new cargo only service between Cork and France, courtesy of the BG Freight Line which is to operate a container service between Cork and the French ports of Montoir de Bretagne and Brest. This will also link up, via the line's other services from these ports to Rotterdam, Dublin and Belfast and the UK ports of Grangemouth and Teesport.

Last, but not least, a very welcome return of some good weather (by late February standards). It's still cold but it's good to see the sun shining after such a cold and wet winter!

Back again

In my last post six weeks ago or more I apologised for my failure to update the blog for some time. Unfortunately it happened again and I have had less and less time available (and perhaps a lack of inspiration) to keep it going.

Quite a lot has happened in the meantime including the government's decision to transfer ownership of Spike Island to Cork County Council, paving the way for the historic fortifications and jail into a major tourist attraction. Unfortunately it happens at a time when the Irish economy is in very serious trouble so a question mark hangs over the project in terms of funding and is likely to remain there for some time.

The hosting of the Tall Ships Race 2009 by Belfast, not long after a highly successful hosting by our neighbouring port of Waterford once again highlights Cork's failure to attract this prestigious event back to Cork where it made its only visit almost 20 years ago in 1991.

New electricity pylons with overhanging wires and a proposal for a new bridge near the Marina in Cork mean that the city is not in a position to host the largest of the ships - but the question I would ask is Why doesn't Cobh or a combination of Cobh and other Lower Harbour locations make a bid for the race to come here sometime in the next few years? The larger ships could be accommodated at the Deepwater Quay in Cobh with the smaller ones going to Crosshaven, Monkstown and Passage West.

Finally for now I see that the Port of Cork company has finally got its own You Tube account with promotional and port related videos. Here is one:-

New Harbours Bill raises questions

The Minister for Transport Noel Dempsey TD today (5th August 2008) announced a new Harbours Bill that will change the nature of our major port companies, including the Port of Cork, and possibly not for the better.

Up to a decade or so ago the ports were entirely run and owned by the state with boards directly responsible to the Minister. Then they became commercial semi-state, i.e. they became private limited companies with a commercial mandate but still wholly state owned. Many saw this as the first tentative steps towards privatisation. As with other state companies they had been put at arms length from the government and as private companies it would be possible, through further legislation, to decouple them completely and sell them off eventually. Now it seems this privatisation strategy is going a step further with a significant reduction in the number of local authority representatives (in Cork Port company it will go down from five to just one). This will also mean a serious drop in the level of accountability of the harbour boards. It's not quite privatisation yet, but it comes becomes a greater possibility in the medium term.

The new Bill, if passed, would also allow port companies to invest outside their current harbour limits. Another proposal is to extend the harbour limits of a number of port companies to facilitate developments outside existing harbours. Primarily this is to allow Drogheda Port Company in County Louth to develop a new port at Bremore near Balbriggan in north County Dublin. What implications this might have for the Port of Cork vis a vis the ongoing row over the new container terminal remains to be seen.

Obviously one cannot judge a major piece of legislation based only on a Ministerial press release, but I, for one, would have concerns that this is a further step towards privatisation of our ports and if that happens local areas will lose whatever control they have over the development and planning of those ports.

No doubt there are people who will argue that this bill would give the Port of Cork (and the other ports in the Irish Republic) a chance to develop and to invest but there are portends of more negative possibilities. Many people who work in Cork port will remember the Liverpool Dockers Strike of 1995 when the entire workforce of that port was sacked and the port privatised. Liverpool port is now owned by a consortium called the Peel Group which also owns John Lennon Airport, three other airports including Manchester, the Trafford Centre in Manchester and are also involved in wind generation. The company also has involvement in Glasgow port, Clydeport and the Manchester Ship Canal, etc, etc.

There have already been international buyouts of major US ports, could we now see ports like the Port of Cork being owned by multinational companies with no links or loyalty to the region, people, seafarers or port workers? Of course native business interests would also put the bottom line (money) before such considerations. For that reason this blog believes the government should retain ownership of our ports and that local elected representatives should continue to be represented on the port bodies to hold them to account.

The Old Blog Cabin will be looking at this government bill in more detail shortly.