The Government has said that the international transport industry here should take "comfort" from a report just published which found that the State does not need to intervene to boost ferry capacity to the continent post-Brexit.
However, the haulage sector said it is worried about delays trucks will face crossing the UK landbridge, after 1 January when Britain leaves the EU and new customs and other checks will come into force for goods travelling between the jurisdictions.
Plans were recently dropped in the UK for a new customs check facility near Holyhead, which could have catered for trucks entering the country from Ireland, and there are fears that Dover on the southeast coast will not be able to cope with extra traffic caused by customs posts that will be in place to check goods going from the UK to continental Europe.
At the moment, tens of thousands of truck journeys pass across the British landbridge from Ireland to the continent every year as it is the shortest (between 13 and 14 hours) route, time-wise, for traffic to get to the European landmass.
But the Irish Road Haulage Association says it is worried that hours-long delays at customs will effectively add another day to their members’ journeys, when legally-binding driving breaks are taken into account, making business more difficult and uncertain.
At the moment, there are three return sailings between Rosslare and Cherbourg every week, three between Dublin and Cherbourg and three between Dublin and Rotterdam. However, they all take leave on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays.
There are plans to introduce a staggered system that would push these services across six days every week from the new year, but hauliers say there should be a six-day weekly service between Rosslare and France, as it would be the shortest service (about 18 hours) compared to the current landbridge (13-14 hours).
A report by Government agency the Irish Maritime Development Office, for the Department of Transport, found that the speed offered by the landbridge option "cannot be achieved on other routes or modalities" and supply chain changes will be necessary, but there is "sufficient capacity" on direct roll-on/roll-off ferry services to handle traffic diverted from the UK, although ferry operators may have to "adjust their service offerings" to meet changing demands.
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"Taking all of the above factors into account," the IMDO report states, "we do not believe that there is a need for the State to intervene to add ro/ro capacity at present.
"However, we acknowledge the volatility and uncertainty of the current situation and recommend that DoT continues to closely monitor demand, capacity and utilisation in the ro/ro sector."
In a statement to RTÉ News, the Minister of State with responsibility for international transport and logistics, Hildegarde Naughton, said the IMDO report "should give comfort to industry that there are reliable services and available capacity on direct routes to the continent for businesses which currently use the landbridge to transport goods".
She pointed out that there will be increased services from Dublin and Rosslare to the continent from January "which will add to this existing capacity".
However, the Irish Road Haulage Association said that the report is "too little, too late" and that comparisons of current traffic from Ireland with future projections "is like comparing apples with oranges" because of Covid-19 and other factors.
Former President of the IRHA, and independent TD for Wexford, Verona Murphy, called for a six-day a week service to be introduced from Rosslare, apart from existing and planned services from Dublin.
"If they [hauliers] continue to use the landbridge, they don't know what they’re going to face. They’ll have a fair idea but ultimately they won’t be able to tell their customers when they’ll be able to deliver their goods, and that’s a huge problem," she said.
"We need extra ships, Rosslare is the best alternative because it’s the most strategic, least time, crossing. So effectively we need to increase capacity on an 18-hour journey to give certainty of timeline."
Wexford-based haulage business Moran & Boxwell run 30 trucks across Europe every week, employing 16 drivers, delivering Pharma-based goods to Germany and Switzerland via the UK landbridge.
"Our fear is big delays if we have to keep running through the UK. That’s our biggest fear, and the amount of extra online paperwork and stuff required. Drivers are not going to want to spend another couple of days down in Dover, or Calais coming back either. If drivers don’t want to do it, we’re going to lose drivers."
He said there’s "big uncertainty" at the moment, with decisions being put off by hauliers regarding investment in the new year.
"We need certainty. We need a direct service from Rosslare so we can avoid the UK. Our customers are asking us at the moment, what are we doing, can we avoid the UK, but the capacity is not there at the moment, we can’t really avoid the UK. It will really have to be a ferry every night out of Rosslare, that’s what we’ll need."
At the moment, talks are understood to be progressing between Rosslare Europort and a ferry company regarding a daily service to the continent, but no decision has yet been made.
