asked the Minister for Transport and Power if he will make funds available for the removal of the sand bar on the Shannon Estuary at Tarbert to encourage the development of the Shannon as a deep-sea port.

The question of developing the Shannon Estuary as a deep-sea port and transhipment centre was exhaustively examined by an inter-departmental committee in 1961. The committee found that in the absence of evidence that commercial interests would be prepared to use the port if it were developed, funds should not be made available for development. There has been no change in the situation in the meantime which would warrant a review of that decision or of speculative expenditure running into millions of pounds on the removal of the sand bar in the estuary.