Mr. Eamonn O'Reilly:

I will keep my remarks relatively short. I will begin by looking at Dublin Port and what happened post Brexit. Dublin Port is, as committee members will be aware, the biggest port in the country. The particular types of trade that are of concern because of Brexit are roll-on, roll-off and lift-on, lift-off or trailer and container trade. About 1.5 million units of trade move through Dublin port in a year, which is about 84% of all units moving through all Irish ports annually. In the context of Brexit, we saw an enormous amount of stockpiling in the last months of 2020. Coming into January we saw volumes through the port as a whole decline by about 24%, which was an enormous fall in one month. If one includes the increase that we saw in December however, which was around 22%, then the overall decline in volumes over the two months was approximately 4%.

To pick up on some of the remarks made by Mr. Carr about the impact of Brexit on GB trade, the story in Dublin was very much the same as that in Rosslare vis-à-visthe ports in south Wales. Mr. Carr mentioned that trade was down by approximately 49% in Rosslare and it was down by about 45% in Dublin. On the other hand, the volume of trade between Dublin Port and ports in continental Europe, including Bruges, Rotterdam and Cherbourg, was up by 14% in the month. On the operational side, we did not know what to expect from Brexit but were very surprised by the scale of the decline in volumes. We thought there would be a decline at some level but we were not expecting it to be so large. At the same time, we had not expected to see such a large increase in volumes in December.

As we look ahead, the concerns that we have are identical to the concerns at Rosslare. What we have seen in Dublin Port is the impact of EU border controls being introduced and we are very conscious that UK import controls will be introduced in British ports in stages, on 1 April and subsequently on 1 July. That will potentially have an impact on Irish exports, depending on the level of preparedness and the stringency of the checks that the British authorities carry out. Overall, we are looking at a period of enormous dynamism. It is a transient period and it is going to take four to six months to reach some sort of steady state, by which time we will have an understanding of the impact of Brexit on the flow of goods through Dublin Port.

As I speak, goods are moving through the port. Obviously, there are individual instances where there have been difficulties with State agencies, including Revenue and the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, in respect of particular consignments but from where I am sitting, I see that all of the preparations that were made and all of the facilities that were put in place are operating efficiently and effectively to allow the reduced volume of trade to pass through Dublin Port.

I note that the European Commission in its winter economic outlook talked about Brexit having five times more impact on the UK economy than the European economy. However, I suspect that the impact of Brexit on the European economy is going to be largely felt in Ireland. There are definite worries there for the future because we cannot meaningfully predict the impact at this stage. All I can do is reassure the committee that a huge amount of preparatory work has been done at Dublin Port in the context of Brexit. All of the infrastructure needed for the border controls is in place and is operating effectively. We have seen significant dynamism in terms of shipping lines changing ships from one route to another in response to market requirements. I cannot be either optimistic or pessimistic about the future because it is so unknowable at the moment.

I will leave it at that. I hope my opening comments have been of some benefit and I would be delighted to answer any questions members may have.