There's growing concern over Christmas travel and supplies - following the closure of Holyhead Port.
Massive efforts are underway to clear the backlog of parcels and goods delayed since the port was damaged by Storm Darragh.
Minister of State at the Department of Transport James Lawless has said that “confidence is low” that the port of Holyhead can reopen next Thursday, with contingency planning currently underway amid fears Holyhead Port may not reopen before Christmas.
Damage caused to infrastructure led to the closure of the Welsh port and cancellation of all ferries, during one of the busiest commercial shipping periods of the year.
An Post and online retailers have rerouted hundreds of thousands of parcels to ports across the UK in a bid to get deliveries to Ireland, with An Post confirming yesterday that it received about 350,000 parcels from the UK as of Friday morning.
While Holyhead Port has said it expects to re-open on December 19, Junior Transport Minister James Lawless has said “confidence in that estimate is low” and there is a need to plan for contingencies and alternative routes as Christmas Day approaches.
“What I’m saying to people, and industries are also saying it to people themselves, is that we cannot rely on that date, we need to plan for the worst and we need to get ready for that,” Lawless said.
“We would typically have 10,000 or more 40ft shipping containers a week moving between Ireland and the UK. Dublin to Holyhead is the primary route for that, and we can only do so much as a state on this side of the Irish sea”.
The Minister said he had been in regular contact with stakeholders in his department and in the haulage sector and ports, and that he would be meeting the ferry companies over the course of the weekend.
