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IT IS “HIGHLY unlikely” that Holyhead port will be functioning this side of Christmas, according to Taoiseach Simon Harris.
Speaking to reporters in Dun Laoghaire today, the Taoiseach said the “seriousness” of the damage was becoming “more apparent as the days go by”.
“I think it’s highly unlikely now that we will see Holyhead port functioning in any real way this side of Christmas and of course, that is a serious concern to both people who’ve bought goods and presents and gifts that they’re hoping will arrive, and also people that are understandably trying to get home for the Christmas period,” he said.
“What I can say is this a huge amount of work is ongoing in government on this issue. Today, the Minister for Transport and the Minister of State for Transport will meet their Welsh counterparts.”
Minister for Transport Eamon Ryan and junior Minister James Lawless met with Stena Line and Irish Ferries this afternoon to seek urgent extra capacity for ferries travelling between Ireland and the UK, as tens of thousands of ferry passengers face travel chaos due to the temporary closure of Holyhead port.
The minister also met with representatives from other industries affected by the delays this morning.
Lawless acknowledged today that it “seems to be unlikely” that Holyhead port would be functional again by Christmas, despite initial hopes that the Welsh port would reopen by Thursday 19 December.
The port has been closed due to damage caused during Storm Darragh.
With the port unlikely to get the green light to open, thousands of cars are now set to reroute to different ports in Britain to travel home to Ireland.
At the moment, frustrated ferry customers are being rerouted to Birkenhead and are arriving into Belfast instead of Dublin, creating a longer ferry journey and major transport diversions for passengers.
Lawless told RTÉ’s Morning Ireland that he will meet with representatives from Stena Line and Irish Ferries this afternoon to discuss added capacity for ferries between Britain and Ireland over the festive period.
“We really need them to do everything that they can to ramp up capacity on alternative routes and add vessels and add capacity and container storage,” Lawless said.
It is hoped extra spaces in locations such as Larne and Birkenhead, near Liverpool, will provide additional capacity.
“We also need, in the case of Stena Line, them to give us accurate and timely updates as to what’s happening and Holyhead”, Lawless added.
Stena Line, owners of Holyhead Port, have cancelled all ferry services between Dublin and Holyhead until at least Friday 20th December.
Commercial shipping has also been affected by the port closure, with An Post saying in a statement yesterday that it had abandoned its plans of using Holyhead port for Christmas deliveries.
An Post added that it was confident presents would arrive on time via alternative routes despite a huge backlog of parcels.
The national postal service said 500,000 items had been diverted and reached Ireland using shipping routes from Pembrokeshire, Larne and Liverpool.
In a bid to ease shipping backlog pressures, the government agreed to a temporary extension of legal driving hours for hauliers for the next two weeks on Saturday.
The urgent rule change by the Department of Transport over the weekend saw Irish hauliers allowed to drive more and rest less in the run-up to Christmas.
Harris said today that extra capacity is being sought.
“We will look at every possibility in terms of providing additional capacity. We’ve already made it very clear that we will put on extra shuttle busses and the likes, should we be able to get other fairy crossings to other ports.
“So there’s a lot of work going on to make sure people can get home for Christmas and to make sure as many gifts as possible can be here in time for Christmas, we’ll have a further update after the meeting,” said Harris.
With reporting by Christina Finn
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It just goes to show how dependent we are on plane and sea travel, despite the fact that the former Cabbage Head party did so much to try and stem it, despite being one of the best customers…….. Especially in business class!!!
@Ollie Fitzpatrick: In fairness Ollie, what other routes could you suggest?
@Ayo Reilly: swimming
@Ayo Reilly: Train under the sea? Bit of a wild one for Irish minds perhaps.
@Ayo Reilly: more ports don’t be so reliant on one have a plan for such an out come make use of other ports like Liverpool
@Ayo Reilly: NI bridge to Scotland
@Ayo Reilly: That’s what I am saying. I am berating the Greens attitude towards travel!!!
@Ayo Reilly: Wonkavision, there’s always Wonkavision. IYK,YK…..
@Ayo Reilly: What about the old Swansea-Cork line?
@Tony G: Which is totally impossible to do!
The next 2 weeks are crucial
Wonder how much of it is future waste that we wont be able to dispose of? I wager all of it.
Has anyone considered an airbridge to nearby RAF Valley to cover existing travel plans? I understand there’s a civilian terminal there that was used for a Cardiff service pre-Covid.
@Basildon Joe: What air forces and for what?
A few packages for Christmas? People going home for the holidays?
Get a grip! It’s surely inconvenient, but not a life or death situation.
@Wolfgang Bonow: 100s of shipping containers filled with crap from Temu and Ali Baba
@Colm Flaherty: Have you seen RAF Valley, it is tiny!
There needs to be a level of state strategy in managing the supply chains to and from this country. This could include development of new ports, incentives to use other ports other than holyhead. We’re hanging off the edge of Europe and our connectivity, exports/imports are overly dependant on a single flaky country and a single port there. I appreciate we ship to France and Spain direct but that need to develop more and the EU should be funding the development of same.
This holyhead incident should serve as a warning and galvanise the government into actions to strategic develop our connectedness with uk and Europe.
@Mr “JonnieBoy” Johnson: never heard of pantomime? Anything that encourages reading should be promoted. You bigotry betrays your fears about yourself.
@Mr “JonnieBoy” Johnson: They have been doing it since Brexit! Roeselare is being developed at the moment and so is Cork, but it takes a long time! The traffic to Holyhead has dropped dramatically, parcels and post form the UK to here still use it as it is the shortest route!
Ridiculous it taken so long, all the hospitals built and other structures that pop up during lockdown in a matter of days.
@Be Lucky: alright so port repairs expert, tell us your secret to get it repaired faster than they don’t already know? Did you even see the damage?
@Basildon Joe: You’re willing to pay the airfreight are you?
@Basildon Joe: There is no space in air freight, simple as that. Royal Mail send most of their air mail to Ireland by sea. An Post do it differently but getting space at this time of the year is a nightmare!
Comments closed on article about the drag queen men assaulted while reading stories to children. We need to protect trans children and homosexual children.
@Maximilian Kolbe: Yes, from nonces in dresses and high heels.
@FlipBip: There is absolutely no evidence anywhere that anybody involved in that incident is sex offender (‘nonce’). Any allegations of that nature made against Ross Lahive or his colleagues are totally baseless.
@Basildon Joe: Are you not going to the Basildon Panto then, the great British tradition that we took to our hearts here.
It is Jack and The Beanstack this year.
Careful though, there is a woman dressed as a man and a man dressed as a woman!!!! Sophie Ladds and Ian Hallard, as Jack and the Dame! and they even have Fairy Sugarplum.
A huge amount of people will be relieved not to have to travel and spent a week with relatives. They’ll never say, of course. Avoiding the stress of it could add years to their lives
Why can they not just go from Fishguard to Rosslare or Dublin..?
@Will Q: they already do but the capacity idls too low.
Could we have some proper reporting please.
What exactly is the damage caused by the storm.
All we seem to be getting are press releases. How about someone actually goes to Hollyhead and tells us what it is like?
have your say