*BRIEFING BY DEPUTY CHIEF MINISTER DR JOSEPH GARCIA - REVEALED IN FULL

NATIONAL READINESS ACTION PLAN TO COMBAT ‘NO DEAL’ BREXIT

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 Wednesday, September 4, 2019 - 09:42

PART FOUR

FERRY NEGOTIATIONS: FIVE DIFFERENT FERRY OPERATORS

There are on-going negotiations with five different ferry operators who are interested in providing a regular daily service to Gibraltar.

In general terms, they would import foodstuffs and other material and export our waste.

One ferry has already carried out a trial run. The result of that was that certain modifications were required to the quay at the North Mole. These have been approved by the Government and they will be in place before 31 October.

The intention is that this ferry would operate a triangular route between Gibraltar, Algeciras and Tangier. This would allow the use of the Algeciras BIP.

The different ferry options that have been looked at involve operations from Portugal, Morocco, Algeciras or Motril. The last resort are direct operations from the United Kingdom itself.

WASTE: DISPOSAL BY SEA IF NOT BY LAND

Different options have been examined and costed in detail in the event that our waste can no longer be exported across the border once we leave the European Union.

Gibraltar produces some 101,000 tonnes of waste annually including 64,000 tonnes of hazardous waste and 35,000 tonnes of solid municipal waste.

Gibraltar is the main economic contributor to the entity in Spain that receives most of our waste. There are no indications that this will change post-Brexit.

However, the different ferry options all cater for the exportation of our waste by sea instead of by land.

In addition to this, tunnels have been cleared in order to allow storage of waste for up to one year in the event that this contingency is required.

This will entail the use of a shredder and baler, already in Gibraltar, and a wrapper.

The last resort would be to revert to the incineration of waste. Gibraltar would clearly prefer not to even though emissions from modern incinerators are very different to what we have seen here in the past.

FUNDING BEING DEALT WITH PRUDENTLY

This is being dealt with prudently and in a responsible manner. It will be recalled that the UK spent tens of millions of pounds into ferry preparations which were not required prior to 12 April.

The move from planning ideas to the hard reality of implementation is already reflected in the funding requests that have been put forward by different department.

This includes areas like identity cards, passports, international driving licences, medicines and medical products and ferry operations.

HEALTH: STOCKPILING OF MEDICINES

In relation to health, for example, the Cabinet approved months ago:

- the stock-piling of medicines and general stores;

- the installation of a containerised plant (duplex) to supply piped oxygen;

- a new blood production system for the manufacture of frozen platelets;

- ultra-low freezer and connecting device for storage of frozen platelets;

- stock-piling of spare parts.

The GHA has held its own table-top exercise in relation to the impact of a No Deal Brexit and a difficult border.

These projects are funded through departmental budgets.

04-09-2019 PANORAMAdailyGIBRALTAR