The Chairman of the Port of Cork, Dermot O'Mahoney has said in his annual statement that 2007 was a great success for the company.

Mr O'Mahoney said that traffic through the port reached 10.6 million tonnes in 2007, the biggest total in its history.

Container traffic was up by eight per cent which Mr O'Mahoney said, "Illustrates the critical importance of the Port of Cork to the Irish, regional and local economy, the strength of the management team and also re-affirms Cork's position as the premier port on the south coast of Ireland".

The Tivoli container terminal was the second busiest in Ireland in terms of the number of containers handled. Of the total throughput at the port oil traffic accounted for 57.4 per cent of cargo increasing by three per cent to 6.1 million tonnes.

Non-oil traffic increased by 119,473 tonnes or 2.7 per cent to 4.5 million tonnes with increases recorded in areas such as container traffic, cereals, coal, bulk cement, trade vehicles, molasses, timber and cruise traffic.

Cars were imported through Cork by Ford, Opel, Fiat, Audi, Volkswagen, Mercedes-Benz, Peugeot, Citroen, Chrysler and Skoda increasing by 5.1 per cent to 77,000 units. There were also a record number of 41 cruise vessels visiting in 2007 bringing more than 50,000 passengers contributing more than €30millon to the economy. This growth was helped by the upgrading of the Cobh cruise terminal in 2006 enabling larger vessels to visit and further investment is planned for early 2008 which will enable the largest passenger vessel to cruise European, the Independence of the Seas to stop at Cobh in may this year.

Mr O'Mahoney said that Brittany Ferries had a very successful year while he still hoped that the Swansea-Cork ferry could be re-introduced in 2008.

Mr O'Mahoney said that the Port of Cork would continue to meet future challenges by maintaining the port's high level of facilities and services, "Tivoli container terminal is approaching its maximum capacity and because of this the company has lodged its planning application for the development of a new container terminal at the Oyster Bank. The proposed development will enhance the city and region's prospects for realisation of its economic potential and facilitating growth".

Plans to relocate the port's major activities to Ringaskiddy have been met with considerable local opposition however with Passage Town Council coming out against the plan. Mayor of Passage Dominic Donnelly said that he hoped other option could be explored which would consider moving the port to less populated areas of the harbour.

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