asked the Minister for the Marine the progress which has been made in re-establishing a profitable Irish ship building, ship repairing and marine servicing industry; and if he will make a statement on the matter.

I assumed responsibility for the industries mentioned last October. Progress in re-establishing the ship building industry is difficult for two basic reasons: (i) over-capacity in the shipping industry which has greatly reduced the level of demand for ships; (ii) the state of the public finances which severely limits the scope for assisting the industry at present.

The world ship building-ship repair scene is extremely competitive with too many shipyards chasing too few orders, and many yards are receiving generous State assistance to stay in business. It is against this background that the options available for developing the ship building and ancillary service industries, including disposal of Verolme Cork Dockyard as a going concern, are being examined in my Department.

The Minister has indicated that the two factors concerned are over-capacity in the shipping industry and the state of public finances. If they are the reasons for the lack of development in the job creation area and improvements in the ship building industry, why did his Government include in their manifesto of February last year a statement that they intended to embark on the re-establishment of a profitable Irish ship building, ship repairing and ship servicing industry? Why did they set that out as a goal and as an objective when they are now telling us, less than a year later, that little or no progress is expected in this area?

Changes can come very quickly in the shipbuilding industry. It is 12 months since that statement was made. However, I am still confident this country needs such a shipyard. The Deputy referred to shipbuilding, ship repair and ship servicing. Ship repair and ship servicing are essential and if we had the necessary facilities we would be in a position to build the ships if we got the orders.

The question of the Cork dockyard is one we in the Department would like to see resolved. We would also like to see the shipbuilding, ship repairing and ship servicing being reopened. This is a matter for the liquidator who was called in by the courts. We are keeping a keen eye on this but we have no discretion in this area. However, we are asked for our observations and I can assure the Deputy that it is our firm intention to do our utmost, within the constraints placed upon us because of the appointment of the liquidator, to ensure that we can reopen this dockyard.

I would draw the Deputy's attention to the guidelines for aiding shipbuilding within Community countries. There is a world-wide crisis in the shipbuilding industry and this crisis continues to deepen together with the imbalance between shipbuilding capacity and demand, causing prices to fall to a level which is often below the fixed cost of European shipyards. The price problem has been aggravated by the development of the cost competitive capacity of third countries, particularly in the production of standardised vessels. We are anxious to have a shipbuilding industry in Ireland.