Fears Holyhead Port will remain closed until spring amid warnings passengers may not get on other ferry crossings

Mr Lawless said he was planning for the possibility that Holyhead Port’s ferry terminals would not reopen on Friday, warning some passengers or freight would not be accommodated on alternative crossings.

It comes as tens of thousands of ferry passengers travelling home from Britain this Christmas face travel chaos. Around 150,000 passengers are hoping to travel on the ­Holyhead to Dublin route in the days leading up to Christmas.

Mr Lawless met with ferry companies Stena Line and Irish Ferries today to discuss the ongoing crisis at the port, which is causes travel chaos for thousands of passengers ahead of Christmas, as well as the supply chain.

While it was initially announced that the port would remain closed until December 20, the minister has said the Government is planning for that date to “slip” and that while they were hoping for the best, he was also preparing for the worst.

“The worst case would be that Holyhead was closed for some time, perhaps into the new year, into early spring .This is possible,” Mr Lawless said.

He added that he expects an update on the date for reopening within the next 36 hours, as divers and engineers in Holyhead continue to assess the damage caused by Storm Darragh.

“We may even have an update today. If not today, it’ll be over the next 24, 36 hours, I expect and I suppose that would be a really key decision point.

“If Holyhead is back in action Thursday and Friday of this week, that would be a huge relief to all the traveling public and all the goods companies.

“But I think we need to continue to plan on the basis that it won’t be back. Because, if you hope for the best and plan for the worst, I think it’s usually a prudent approach in these situations,” he added.

The minister said in relation to cargo, items would be prioritised for processing but that “it may not be possible that every single package and every single person will be able to make the journey, certainly with the timescale of the next week”.

“There may be some disappointments, and there may be some cargo that has to be deprioritised in terms of if something is less time sensitive, it’s not perishable, it’s not a pharmaceutical product. For example, perhaps there may be certain calls, but the industry makes those calls every day,” Mr Lawless said.

The minister said the pressure up until Thursday will be for cargo transportation, but that passenger travel will take over after that point.

However, he said he did not believe that it was necessary to lift the passenger cap at Dublin airport to help with passengers trying to travel before Christmas.

“When I checked on Friday, there were 4,000 additional spaces on airlines under the cap. So if the airlines want to fill those 4000 seats first and then come back to us to talk about the bigger picture,” Mr Lawless said.

“Some people will take any opportunity to make a headline, and I tried to be more serious with the issue,” he added.

Mr Lawless said he was disappointed with the communication from Stena Line initially and said last week there was “a situation where we had an almost daily changing update”.

He added that it was important that “everybody fronts up and tells us as it is”.

“I think it’s fair to say, Stena Line fully get the severity of the situation and I think that impressed upon them today at the meeting, the absolute criticality of giving us quality, reliable updates.

“I think for their own reputation; they cannot come back with another update that isn’t met,” Minister Lawless said.

Mr Lawless said Irish Ferries has a number of vessels available to use in to ramp up services but that the company needed to find a port to take them.

While Stena Line will put a new vessel into service tomorrow as well as an additional vessel, originally due to service Holyhead, that will now operate between Dublin and Fishguard.

In a statement, Stena Line said the company is providing additional capacity on other routes for both freight and passengers and will operate a free bus transfer from Holyhead to Fishguard.

“I can confirm that our operational teams have now been able to establish a new temporary freight only ferry route between Dublin-Heysham which will launch on Tuesday 17th Dec providing one round trip per day.

We have also established a new temporary route on Dublin-Fishguard for passengers and freight which will be served by the Stena Adventurer,” Johan Edelman, Stena Line’s Irish Sea Trade Director said.

Irish Ferries has said the company “is currently communicating with impacted customers who were due to sail from Holyhead up to Thursday 19 December”.

“We are awaiting confirmation of the expected port reopening on December 20, but in the meantime as a contingency, we will continue to pursue all viable options to ensure freight and passengers get to their destination in time for Christmas and will update further as soon as we have more information,” Irish Ferries said in a statement.

The ferry company also reconfirmed that the damage done to Holyhead was not as a result of the berthing operations of Irish Ferries vessels.

Taoiseach Simon Harris said on Monday the “seriousness” of the damage was becoming “more apparent as the days go by”.

“I think it’s highly unlikely now that we will see Holyhead port functioning in any real way this side of Christmas and, of course, that is a serious concern to both people who’ve bought goods and presents and gifts that they’re hoping will arrive, and also people that are understandably trying to get home for the Christmas period,” Mr Harris said in Dún Laoghaire.

“What I can say is this a huge amount of work is ongoing in government on this issue. Today, the Minister for Transport and the Minister of State for Transport will meet their Welsh counterparts.”

It’s a very challenging situation and probably the worst possible time of year for something like this to happen

Stena Line has brought in a new Dublin-Fishguard service as an alternative for passengers.

The Government is considering asking ports that are set up solely to carry freight to put in place temporary facilities to be able to carry passengers, the Irish Independent understands.

Junior transport minister James Lawless met stakeholders, such as Irish Rail and the Irish Road Haulage Association (IRHA), this morning before meeting representatives of ­ferry companies Stena and Irish Ferries this afternoon.

The minister spoke to his Welsh counterpart Ken Skates, who has agreed to mirror a relaxation of rules on rest times for lorry drivers in a bid to alleviate a backlog of freight.

He said he had asked the National Transport Authority to ensure there were more public transport connections in place so people are able to travel to and from alternative ports.

“There maybe some use of shuttle buses, emergency reception facilities, et cetera, but we need to make sure that that system is in place and we need to make sure that those journeys can be made,” he told RTÉ’s Morning Ireland.

He said Mr Skates agreed that “we really need to get accurate, high-quality information from Holyhead port in terms of repairs, in terms of the status”, and that he did not think the port would be back open before Christmas.

“Is this a more serious issue than was first thought. Is it going to take time to resolve? My instinct last week was that it is more serious and that’s why I instructed my own team and everybody, all the stakeholders to really plan for the worst and look beyond Holyhead,” he said.

“And that’s we’ve been doing over the last four to five days.

“It’s a very challenging situation and probably the worst possible time of year for something like this to happen, with people anxiously waiting for parcels to arrive, goods coming both directions, a lot of small exporters from Ireland wanting to get the goods to the Christmas market in the UK and vice versa, as well as all the normal business that transacts and then of course persons looking to come home for Christmas as well,” Mr Lawless added.

Alternatives

It is up to ports and ferries to provide additional capacity in order to ease the backlog created by the closure at ­Holyhead port.

It is hoped extra spaces in locations such as Larne and Birkenhead, near Liverpool, will provide additional capacity.

Ferry company Stena Line has announced the opening of a new route from Dublin to Fishguard.

Sailings will depart daily from Fishguard at 9am and from Dublin at 11pm according to the company’s website, with sailings so far only listed for today and Tuesday.

Irish Ferries will continue to pursue “all viable options to ensure freight and passengers get to their destination in time for Christmas” as it awaits confirmation of whether Holyhead Port will open on December 20.

It said this planning is taking place “as a contingency” and the company is currently communicating with impacted customers who were due to sail from Holyhead up to Thursday 19 December.

A spokesperson said it will be in “direct contact with customers due to sail on later dates as soon as there is more clarity”.

In a statement, Irish Ferries said it could “re-confirm categorically” that the current closure of the port was not due to the berthing operations of it’s vessels, but “due to port infrastructure damage that emerged during Storm Darragh”.

The damage continues to be assessed by the port operator, a spokesperson said.

Irish Ferries has increased capacity on the Pembroke/Rosslare route through the deployment of the James Joyce vessel, which will accommodate larger passenger numbers.

Additional sailings have also been added to the Dublin/Cherbourg service, with daily departures scheduled in the coming days also adding further freight capacity.

“In the key week ahead with freight backlogs to clear, and thousands of passengers about to embark on their drive home for Christmas to reunite with family and friends, Irish Ferries remains actively engaged with alternative British Ports to facilitate access for our vessels and help alleviate the significant pressures on both the freight and passenger markets,” they added.

“We are awaiting confirmation of the expected port reopening on December 20, but in the meantime as a contingency, we will continue to pursue all viable options to ensure freight and passengers get to their destination in time for Christmas and will update further as soon as we have more information.”

Rule change

An urgent rule change by the Department of Transport over the weekend saw Irish hauliers allowed to drive more and rest less in the run-up to Christmas, but industry sources say this is not a sustainable solution.

They predict “bedlam” later this week as diversions and sharply increasing passenger numbers will all come to a head.

At the moment, frustrated ferry customers are being rerouted to Birkenhead and are arriving into Belfast instead of Dublin, creating a longer ferry journey and major transport diversions for passengers.

A spokesperson for Irish Ferries said they have also increased capacity on the Pembroke/Rosslare route.

The two ferry companies based in Holyhead, Stena Line and Irish Ferries, are now facing a headache with their alternative port options for both passengers and freight.

Pembroke Dock is not big enough to facilitate the number of passengers expected to travel and Fishguard, another port in Wales, only has one scheduled sailing to Dublin a day.

Neither port is serviced to the standard of Holyhead for passengers.

Freight

They are facing a similar challenge with freight, as neither Cairnryan Port in Scotland or Birkenhead suit the practice of drop-trailer deliveries, and only take accompanied freight.

This will not suit hauliers who need to drop their containers at the port.

“Holyhead would have processed 1,000 freight trailers a day. This is almost impossible to reroute around the UK without a build-up,” an industry source told the Irish Independent.

“Operation Stacked means efforts are being made to reroute ferries and to increase staffing hours, but it is only going to cause chaos as we get closer to Christmas.

“We are lucky in that the weather has been reasonably calm this week and it’s kept everything ticking.

“Minister James Lawless is only being told a small part of the story. It is expected to be bedlam in the coming days.”

IRHA president Eugene Drennan said he now expects “trouble for the freight”, as passenger numbers swell in the lead-up to Christmas and they are rerouted to other ports in Britain.

“We must count Holyhead out. Now, we have this mayhem and very tight lines to get the capacity,” he said.

“It’s almost Christmas. Passengers and people with children have to get priority, but they should have more ships on the lines and the ports should be working overtime. Only for the hauliers’ association, we’d be in total disarray. We upped the ante all week to force the Irish Government into meeting us.”

An Post has said the parcel backlog due to the port closure is now down to the last 16,000 parcels, which are currently en route.

However, Mr Drennan said this did not reflect the seriousness of the issue with the supply line.

“If it’s on this side of the water, it’ll be delivered, but they [An Post] are not the link between Ireland and England. We are, the ship is and the fishing lines are,” he said.

“An Post has delivered what has arrived, but they can’t deliver it if it doesn’t come.”

The main thing is don’t panic. The ferry company is obligated to get you there

Owner of Travel Extra, Eoghan ­Corry, said: “I don’t have any faith that Holyhead will reopen on Friday. Even if it does reopen, we have two ferry companies using the same berths.

“Under normal circumstances, at Christmas, we’d see 33,000 cars using that route. That’s around 100,000 passengers in cars and another 40,000 to 50,000 foot passengers.

“A large number of those passengers are carrying a lot of bags and presents. People take the ferry and the car, as they’re able to carry things that Ryanair wouldn’t allow on board.

“People will have to use another ferry route, which looks increasingly likely. And it’s quite a distance to drive to alternative routes. So this is quite an inconvenience for around 100,000 passengers over the Christmas period.

“The ferry capacity is there. It’s the port capacity that’s the problem. And Holyhead is the second-busiest port in the UK.

“I expect the ferry companies to deal with capacity, but the real issue is not being able to use Holyhead as a convenient port.

“The main thing is don’t panic. The ferry company is obligated to get you there. They’ll offer an alternative route, or refund.”

Mr Corry said some passengers could consider flying, but he reminded people there is a passenger cap.

He suggested Belfast being another route for people to fly into if they encounter any issues.

“From an air point of view, there’s no real remedy there to offer additional capacity,” he added.

He expected the busiest days for travel to be December 22 and December 27.

Responding, a spokesperson for ­Ryanair highlighted the ongoing passenger cap issue, which they said “has effectively blocked airlines from adding further seasonal routes for winter 2024”.

Aer Lingus was also contacted for a response.

A spokeswoman for the Department of Transport said that “all efforts were being made in the background to resolve the problems associated with ­Holyhead’s closure”.

She added that a substantial backlog in freight had been cleared and all ­efforts will be put into ensuring everything is done to help freight and passengers travel this Christmas.