New figures from the Central Statistics Office show that Irish ports handled a total of 46.4 million tonnes of goods last year, a fall of 13% on 2022.
The CSO said that goods forwarded from Irish ports amounted to 15.2 million tonnes in 2023, while a total of 31.2 million tonnes of goods were received.
A total of 12,105 vessels arrived in Irish ports during the year, down from a figure of 12,447 in 2022.
Today's figures show that Great Britain and Northern Ireland accounted for 37% of the total tonnage of goods handled in the main ports by region of trade in 2023, while EU countries accounted for 43% of the total tonnage of goods.
The main courts are Bantry, Cork, Drogheda, Dublin, Rosslare, Shannon and Waterford.
The CSO said that Dublin port accounted for 59% of all vessel arrivals in Irish ports during 2023.
Meanwhile, a total of 272 cruise ships arrived in Irish ports last year compared with 240 in 2022.
The CSO said that was 43 less compared with pre-Covid19 figures, when 315 cruise ships visited Ireland in 2019.
Most of the cruise ships arrived in Cork (94) followed by Dun Laoghaire (75), while the majority of cruise ships arrived between May and September 2023.
The ships carried just over 372,000 passengers, a near-50% increase on the numbers seen in the previous year.
