The decision by a government minister to supply members with a report the evening before Tynwald led to a committee report being pulled.

Infrastructure Minister Ray Harmer informed members late on Monday afternoon of a report he wished to refer to in Tynwald before it had been formally submitted.

Tynwald members had been due to consider a report by the environment and infrastructure policy review committee into the Department of Infrastructure’s harbour strategy on Tuesday.

However, on the morning of the sitting, committee chairman Marlene Maska MLC announced she had withdrawn it from the order paper because of Mr Harmer’s sudden decision to reveal his own report late on Monday afternoon.

Mrs Maska said that him doing this had not allowed members enough time to read the summary of Mr Harmer’s report by marine engineers ABPmer.

On Monday, Mr Harmer told members that it was ’unusual to refer to a report before it is formally submitted’ but he was ’assured’ that the document was ready to be used.

He supplied members with a contents list, an executive summary and the conclusions of the report. However it is understood that he said that the electronic document was too large to be distributed by email.

Mr Harmer also said that the document contained ’technical data that will be of limited interest to those without a marine engineering background’.

Mrs Maska said that, given her background in architecture and marine architecture, she found the ABPmer is ’actually quite supportive’ of the committee’s report.

However, she said that she felt it was only right to withdraw the committee’s report to allow members time to read through the report summary circulated by Mr Harmer.

Mrs Maska said: ’It would be wrong to carry on with the debate without giving members chance to read the report.’

But she did note that she has not yet received the full report and even its length was not yet clear.

Despite this, Mrs Maska said the delay was a ’helpful’ one and that she hoped to bring back the committee’s recommendations in December.

The committee had made two recommendations in its report, firstly that the DoI should ’focus on progressing maintenance works for Douglas harbour as a matter of urgency’.

In its response, the Council of Ministers said it agreed with this recommendation and that maintenance works would begin ’as a matter of urgency subject to the necessary financial considerations and procedures’.

However, the committee’s second recommendation that CoMin should appoint a body to conduct a strategic review of the island’s harbours and options for future development was rejected.

The committee recommended this because it argued the Victoria Pier proposal ’reflects the government’s wider lack of capacity to think, plan and budget strategically’.

Rejecting this, CoMin said the DoI ’recognises that the provision of infrastructure is important to economic growth and social success and will work with others to ensure that the island’s infrastructure is best placed to meet those changing demands’.

However, CoMin added: ’The island has a Tynwald-approved harbours strategy that outlines various actions and commitments to be undertaken by the department, and defines a policy that includes working with others to maximise the social and economic potential of the island’s harbours.

’This document provides the framework for current actions within the island’s harbours. Stopping the current progress on work, including that for the development of a deep water berth, would only hold up various schemes within Douglas Harbour.

’The department would suggest that they be able to continue so that the economic potential be realised, and marketed, as soon as possible. Therefore, the DoI proposes to continue progress and would not support a further strategic review given the approval of the Harbours Strategy by Tynwald in March 2018.’

That response has been criticised by Isle of Man Maritime Ltd, a not-for-profit organisation, which was formed to develop, support and promote the island’s maritime sector.

The organisation said it was ’exceptionally disappointed’ with the CoMin response that ’appears not to consider the evidence provided by the highly experienced maritime professionals that were asked to contribute to the report’.

It added: ’The healthcare review, the climate change review and the purchase of the Steam Packet have been recent excellent examples of the government successfully improving its processes and ability to make properly considered strategic decisions by appointing external professionals to advise them, largely because the strategic work has been undertaken independently from the operational departmental level.

’We find it alarming that this approach not been adopted for the proposed £80m harbour strategy, given the ports and harbours are amongst the most important infrastructure assets an island can have.’

Isle of Man Maritime Ltd added that it would like to see an ’independent, professional review’ to be conducted ’before the point of no return is reached with the current harbour strategy’.