Dublin Port processed a record amount of cargo throughout last year, up 6.4% to nearly 33m tonnes and exceeding the previous high point of 2007 at the end of the boom.

Significantly, one of the key drivers of growth last year was stronger import levels – they grew by 6.5%, slightly ahead of the rise in exports.

There was a particularly strong increase in imported trade vehicles with more than 102,000 cars, vans and trucks coming through the port.

Close to two million individual passengers arrived and departed the port, close to the levels of Cork and Shannon Airports. These included about 150,000 passengers on cruise ships, a sector which grew strongly in 2015.

Dublin Port, Chief Executive, Eamonn O’ Reilly joined Vincent Wall on Breakfast Business, he said that he believes that the port has moved from "slow and steady" growth to stronger compounded year-on-year growth.

"We projected that between 2015 and 2019 we would grow by 5% each year. In the first of those years, we've seen growth of 6.4%. We are still looking at 5% growth this year - I wouldn't be surprised at all if we come out ahead of that again," he added looking forward to the rest of 2016.