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Hon. Mike Espat, Area Rep., - Toledo East
"Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister had a big fight with the demon Michael Ashcroft with investment. Took away BTL. Had to pay millions of dollars that the Belizean people have to pay back and now I understand the Prime Minister in his speech said he will now go back and they will study the port of Belize project along with who? with the demon Michael Ashcroft. So what kind of game is going on here between the government and Michael Ashcroft? and every time we get into a fight with Michael Ashcroft he ends up taking away more money than you can imagine at the expense of the Belizean people."

Hon. Dean Barrow, Prime Minister
"With respect to Port Loyola, I don't know which study the member is speaking of. He says that that study unknown to me concluded that it was not feasible to put a cruise port at Port Loyola. That's not my understanding. My understanding was that the study commissioned by Carnival Cruise Lines concluded just the opposite. The reason the port never got built was because of your fine brother. Wasn't it? You talk about making sure we are take advantage, we give advantage to Belizeans. No greater advantage could have been given to a Belizean than was given by your government to your brother. With respect to the Port Loyola Cruise Port, as usual he cocked up and chase Carnival away. So please don't come here and talk about its not being feasible to do a cruise port at Port Loyola. When Carnival was going to do it with your brother, their feasibility study show that it was technically sound, it was absolutely doable. Now things may have changed and so where we are now is at a point where various parties, not just interest associated with Michael Ashcroft, various parties would like to look at again at Port Loyola to determine whether a cruise port would still be feasible and of course the government encourages that. Whoever the parties may be. Those parties cant get any exclusive if they determine the project feasible and they are to proceed, because the supreme court, I repeat, has said you cannot give exclusives. So while we encourage the exploratory interest that the parties have in Port Loyola, we are far from reaching a point where we can say that there is an material chance of these people actually proceeding with the project. That is completely premature. But I want to make clear that we mean to get a cruise port for the Belize City harbour and you don't have to go at Technical, well you cant go at Technical anymore because you all broke that up. But you don't have to go at Technical to know that if it is feasible, the best possible site for the alongside docking facility would allow for passengers to get off onto the mainland from ship to shore and then take off to the various points throughout the country is Port Loyola."

The Prime Minister says that the next step will be to assess whether Port Loyola is viable for the two hundred foot high Oasis Class Cruise Ships. Critics of the location say that an enormous amount of dredging will be required to make that location accessible by the giant ships.