Dublin Port stakes €1.6bn on reclaiming its place at heart of the capital

Masterplan 2040 aims to double transport capacity, create parks, amenities and a new bridge to reintegrate the port with the city

Eamonn O’Reilly, chief executive, Dublin Port Company: ‘Dublin Port is unbelievably important to the country’. Picture: Conor McCabe Photography

Given that it occupies almost 650 acres of land close to the heart of the city, there have been suggestions that Dublin Port could be relocated outside the capital so the land it sits on can be used for housing.

However, for Eamonn O’Reilly, chief executive of Dublin Port Company, this idea simply reflects how people have forgotten the importance of the port to the capital.

“In the old days when the ships were going far up the river Liffey they were stopping outside people’s houses and workplaces. Everybody knew that Dublin was a port city, but as the bridges were built and the ships moved ever eastward, the port became distanced. It became invisible to the city,” he told the Business Post.