Labour Transport Spokesperson Tommy Broughan T.D. has welcomed a commitment from Minister Noel Dempsey to a Labour Party request for an audit of all leases of port company lands.

Deputy Broughan said, "Recently, the Harbours (Amendment) Act was passed by Dail Eireann. During the course of passing this legislation I submitted an amendment to facilitate an annual audit of all leases of port company lands. There have been allegations that leases in Dublin Port and some other ports around the country were allowed to deteriorate over the decades. In some cases legislation then had to be rushed through the Dail to prevent the acquisition of land within harbour areas at a fraction of their real value.

"There is a clearly a need to strengthen the system for the management of the leases of all land within port areas. Many public representatives, especially in local government, have ongoing concerns over the proper registration and management of some of these publicly owned land banks.

"Unfortunately, Minister Dempsey rejected the amendment on port land leases. But he has now informed me that on foot of the Labour Party amendment he has written to the "chairpersons of the ten State commercial port companies requesting that they submit a report to me on the current status of all leases of port company land." The Minister went on to say that he has also undertaken to "examine the legislative position regarding this reporting process, in the unlikely event that the existing powers proved to be unsatisfactory."

"I welcome Minister Dempsey’s acknowledgement that this issue needs to be addressed and hope that any new necessary legislation will be published as a matter of urgency."