How can we avoid a disruptive closure like the past month at Holyhead Port?

Holyhead Port is set to reopen tomorrow after being closed for more than a month following Storm Darragh, with its closure disrupting passengers and shipping.

On Newstalk Breakfast, the Irish Road Haulage Association spokesperson Eugene Drennan said the group are calling for a high level task force for the program of the new Government - looking at how we cross the Irish Sea.

“We have never really looked at how we cross that sea, the timelines and the efficiencies - and it is high time we looked at it,” he said.

“So hopefully our request and the program for Government to put a task force in place will be taken on board.”

"There should be a variety"

Mr Drennan said we should consider looking at using other ports and not be reliant on just the one.

“Perhaps we have to look at other ports, we cannot be just in one port,” he said.

“There should be a variety that we wouldn't have this trouble again.

“We may have to have a channelled port, which would be a channel in from the sea and it would be a little bit more inland with the efficiency of getting to the ocean quickly.”

Mr Drennan said it is not as simple as choosing to go to another port when you’re hauling goods from Ireland to the UK or the other way.

“We can and we can't go in and out of the other ports,” he said.

“It depends on what part of the UK it comes from, the timeline, the efficiencies, the timeline around our drivers’ hours - it depends on a lot of issues.

“We should have a ship leaving an English port every two hours, really, for the needs that we require today and how we do that and to avoid this in the future?

“We've never, on our side, looked at the efficiencies of ports or the timelines or how we cross that sea - it is high time we did.

“We're one of the few remaining island nations of the EU coupled with Malta and Cyprus, and we're the biggest island nation, so we're so vulnerable.”

"We should have an input"

Mr Drennan explained the reasoning for calling for a task force by the Irish Government.

“If the licensee is coming into an Irish port and it's granted by the Irish Government or an offshoot of the Irish Government, then, of course, we should have an input into the structures and the timelines,” he said.

“We're not saying nationalise anything but we are asking to introduce other shipping lines into the equation.

“We are restricted by just having three, and if you have only three, then you know, complacency may set in [and] it is easy to corner the market, and the efficiencies we require.

“A lot of the shipping is about to go into retrofit in the winter time - have we got the capability and the capacity go through the spring with sufficient and enough capacity to deal with the needs of our future?"

Mr Drennan said that the Irish Road Haulage Association are at the core of this issue because they can “see what's happening” and they know that when they call for the taskforce “that there is reason - a good reason”.

Holyhead Ferry Terminal, Anglesey, North Wales. Pictured in October 2023. Photo: Alamy