James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The Minister mentioned the sword of Damocles. The concern is that the sword will fall and nothing will have been prepared for that. If the Minister wants to bring Rosslare Europort up to speed to deal with a hard Brexit where if we lose the UK land bridge either because of issues of legal access or financial constraints regarding its use, the port needs to be expanded along with development of access roads. The authorities in Dover and Calais have publicly printed plans to deal with a hard Brexit, but Rosslare has not. The authorities in Dover and Calais are predicting ten mile tailbacks. Rosslare has no plans in place to deal with that. The manager in Rosslare Europort was reported in the local newspaper as having told Wexford County Council that the Government's policy is not to invest in ports. He seemed to be outraged that Iarnród Éireann had to spend its own money on its own port because the Government would not spend on it. Facilities in Rosslare Europort are required for customs, the Garda and the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine. It can then make an application to the EU to be upgraded to border inspection port status and then get tier 1 status.

There is a great deal of work to be done in Rosslare Europort to make it suitable to deal with the impact of Brexit, as the required work has not been done to date. If we lose access to the UK land bridge for the transport of roll-on, roll-off freight, Rosslare Europort will be the only game in town. We can send freight through any port in the country but for the movement of perishable, pharmaceutical and agricultural goods transported by the drivers of trucks direct to the Continent, Rosslare will be the only game in town.

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