A conference in Dublin has called for an EU strategy to deal with port congestion.
Congestion in European ports is presenting a serious problem for the future of Irish exports, the conference was told.
The conference, attended by 140 of the leading figures in European transport and shipping, called for an EU strategy to deal with port congestion.
The Director of the Maritime Development Office, Glenn Murphy, told the conference that Ireland's heavy dependency on major European ports for access to EU markets and deep sea trans-shipment must be protected.
Mr Murphy said that Ireland is particularly at risk. Over 90% of all Irish traded goods move in and out of the country by sea.
Last year €130bn worth of goods were moved.
But Irish exports depend on access to European markets through ports that are already crowded and must use these ports also to trans-ship goods for an increasingly congested Europe.
'For Irish business to flourish, it is vital that we keep the arteries of our sea lanes open and congestion around the major European centres supplying those arteries is becoming serious,' Mr Murphy said.
'Over 64% of our trade last year was intra-European-based and European ports are major trans-shipment points for Irish trades to the wider global economy,' he warned.
The conference adopted the 'Dublin Declaration', calling for an EU strategy to deal with port congestion.
