Indeed, while the development of new buildings along the quaysides is a very public manifestation of Dublin's ambition, there has also been some very real investment into the port, with about 187m spent on upgrading the port facilities over the last decade or so.

While some of this investment has been spent on upgrading the port's infrastructure, other money has gone on expanding the area of the port . . . for example, regaining leases for about 55 acres of quay sites. In terms of infrastructure, it has built two new two-tier ramps and four new single-tier ramps, and all of these developments taken together have allowed for the port's throughput to be increased by about 80% over the past decade. Indeed, Dublin Port last year handled about 28 million tonnes of freight and about 1.2m passengers from ferry traffic.

This is in addition to 80,000 passengers that came through last year from cruise lines.

Traffic has been increased with news services that have recently come to Dublin Port . . . foe example, Celtic Link has recently commenced a daily service to Liverpool (this service will soon be increased to twice daily), and Stena and P&O will be increasing their services out of Dublin in the near future).

All of this is good news for Dublin Port, although if there is any cloud on the horizon, it will regard how a city centre-based port can cope with the increased demand.

"Much of our increased capacity has been down to better use of our facilities, " said Enda Connellan, chief executive of Dublin Port Company. "But we will need additional infrastructure to maintain our levels of growth into the future."

Indeed, the current port strategy includes a 21 hectare extension of the port itself, better utilisation of the current port facilities, and, as importantly, the usage of a new port at Greenore in County Louth, of which Dublin Port has acquired a 50% stake. This strategy is expected to cost the company in the region of 23m, but it is seen as crucial to the development of Dublin Ports LoLo and RoRo capacity . . .

especially as 75% of the Port's trade is unitised, and Dublin Port handles two out of every three containers that comes to Ireland.