Mr. Liam Lacey:

In the Vice Chairman's opening comments, he used the word "complacent". I do not accept that in any way. We have been working non-stop on these issues since the commencement of the Brexit problem and even more intensively as deadlines approach. The final deadline is now approaching. I assure the Vice Chairman that there has been no complacency. Our approach has generally been to allow the market to respond and to steer clear of State intervention. My view is that this is a good approach and that it has produced the results we have seen. What would the circumstances be like had the State intervened to support a service, an individual operator or a group of operators? What would the response have been from the industry, which has invested heavily and which is prepared to continue to invest and to respond to market demands?

That would have caused a chaotic response and we could have had grave difficulties. The spontaneous desire of an industry and of participants in that industry are lost in order to solve the problems of the market in such a scenario.

On being proactive, we have been proactive all of the time in the advice we give to the Department and the Minister and in our engagement with the industry, which has been ongoing over the past two or three years. There has been a non-stop engagement over that period to try to understand, tease out and address problems. All of this was compounded by Covid-19 since the beginning of 2020 and that intensified that communication with industry. There has been no lack of communication with industry, therefore. Our role is in the maritime industry and we have been engaged in a concerted way with the maritime industry throughout this process. Through colleagues in the Department, we also have access to a broader range of issues that are involved in the Brexit problem that relate to what is happening with Revenue, clearance procedures and engagements with other agencies and Departments that have concerns and issues. On all occasions, those issues are processed and we try to find solutions and move on. That has been part of our work in recent years and it continues to be a significant part of our work.

On the new entrant to the market, I am delighted that has happened and I have expressed my views about that. The news of this new entrant immediately went up on our website and it was pushed out to the market we serve and the contacts we have. The new service offers a different solution that brings traffic closer to Calais than previous services have done. The promoter of the service is working with the assumption that this will capture a significant chunk of land bridge business. If that is the case, we wish it well. It has been able to enter the market because there is a level playing field and because it will be able to compete on the same basis as everybody else. We have tried to ensure that this remains the case. That has resulted in this new endeavour of the DFDS ro-ro service to Europe coming into the market and as I said, we wish it well.

There is an important issue with the substitutability of some of the services that operate on direct routes to the Continent. There is a concentration on ro-ro, as if it is the only mode of access to the Continent and as if driver-accompanied solutions to the Continent are the only solution. It is not because we have seen higher growth in recent years in the use of unaccompanied trailer services to the continent. That growth has been satisfactory and at a faster rate than ro-ro services and the same is true of lo-lo services. These alternatives provide solutions and I am not saying this is any partisan way. I am just laying the information before the committee. These services work and it is in the interests of Irish importers and exporters to know that these services are there and to evaluate whether these services can make a contribution to them meeting the needs of their customers.

I will go back to the issue of overall capacity. Capacity is a function of the volume of a vessel and the frequency of sailings. It is a mathematical equation so it is not an entirely difficult thing to calculate capacity. When that is matched with demand, the evidence is there as to whether there is surplus capacity and the extent of the surplus capacity. We have carried out that analysis. When I spoke about the range of direct services to the Continent, I outlined that there were four different operators at the time of writing and now there are the additional services that we have spoken about. When one looks at capacity across those services and when one adds in what is planned for January, there is sufficient capacity to carry the land bridge business. That is an irrefutable fact. The question remains as to whether the frequency and the points of arrival and departure of those services are sufficient to satisfy the market. If these new services can do that, they stand a good chance of doing well in attracting land bridge business and if they do not, there are other alternatives.

When one combines these alternatives and when one encourages importers and exporters to be aware of the range of solutions that are available, that is when Irish importers and exporters are most protected. Putting a portfolio of solutions together with one solution countering the risk of another makes for effective solutions. That is what we have been encouraging for quite some time, going back to 2019 with the Getting Ireland Brexit Ready campaign, the launch of which at least one member of the committee attended. I hope that answers some of the questions.