Harbours and Piers
Dail Éireann — 2026-07-07
============================================================

Jennifer Murnane O'Connor (FF), Carlow-Kilkenny

I thank the Deputy for raising this issue. I am taking this on behalf of the Minister of State, Deputy Dooley.
The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine owns, operates and maintains six designated State-owned fishery harbour centres. The Department also has responsibility for the North Harbour at Cape Clear Island, as well as the maintenance of a small number of specific piers, lights and beacons throughout Ireland.
Investing in our marine infrastructure is particularly important to the resilience of our seafood industry. The Department, subject to project feasibility and resources, administers the annual fishery harbour and coastal infrastructure development programme consistent with the objectives of the national development plan. The strategic objective of the programme is to contribute to the future viability of the fishing industry and the sustainability of our coastal communities. Between January 2015 and December 2025, the Department invested almost €335 million in the State’s publicly owned marine infrastructure through a mix of national Exchequer and Brexit adjustment reserve funding. Dunmore East Harbour received over €21.5 million during that period.
On 16 February 2026, the Minister, Deputy Heydon, and the Minister of State, Deputy Dooley, announced an allocation of €27 million for capital projects in Ireland's publicly owned harbours through the 2026 fishery harbour and coastal infrastructure development programme. Dunmore East has been allocated nearly €2 million for projects including cliff protection works, which have recently been granted planning permission, and preparation for a new harbour breakwater. These are likely to be multiannual projects.
The Department’s engineers prioritise projects that will bring infrastructure for which the Department has responsibility up to best international standards. Some projects may be scheduled over several phases to take account of the availability of annual funding, competing national priorities and the capacity of the division to manage multiple large projects simultaneously.
In 2016, the Department commissioned consulting engineers RPS to design a small craft harbour at Dunmore East. Following public consultation, the project's scope expanded to incorporate leisure, fishing and cruise vessel facilities. A comprehensive technical feasibility study was finalised in 2019, as the Deputy said, to evaluate various harbour layouts. While a preferred development option is under consideration, progressing the project depends on securing regulatory consents, annual national funding and complying with the Department of public expenditure's infrastructure guidelines.
Dunmore East is one of Ireland’s principal fishing ports. The main basin of the harbour has three quays for the fishing fleet. The harbour features an adventure centre, a coastguard unit and a Shannon-class Royal National Lifeboat Institution, RNLI, lifeboat station.
Waterford Harbour Sailing Club runs a busy spring-summer schedule, using an open-access slipway. In summer, Dunmore East acts as a Port of Waterford cruise ship tender port, with an average of ten calls each year. As recently as Sunday last, 5 July, a cruise ship visited the area carrying 2,700 passengers.
The Department is evaluating the responses to a tender for a consultant to prepare a seven- to ten-year business plan to enable each of the fishery harbour centres to work to clear, strategic objectives. The business consultant will look at each of the harbours, consider the characteristics and produce individual plans. It is expected that there will be town-hall-type consultations in each harbour with all relevant stakeholders to consider their needs. There will be town hall meetings in this regard.

---

Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted.

Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-07-07/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-09-14T01:01:07+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-07-07