Hildegarde Naughton (Galway West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for raising this issue. Rosslare Europort continues to work closely with the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport and other Government Departments and offices in preparing for the border controls and other impacts that will arise from Brexit. The port's border inspection post, on a 16 acre site 1 km from the port, is ready for operation and additional staff have been deployed at Rosslare Europort since April 2020. Future Brexit configuration has been incorporated into the overall master plan for the port.  Rosslare Europort is actively seeking opportunities arising from Brexit to expand shipping services to continental EU ports, and I am aware that the Deputy, together with other representatives from the Irish Road Haulage Association, as well as representatives from the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport and from Rosslare Europort, visited northern France in November 2019 to try to develop shipping links from Rosslare. I thank the Deputy for her work on developing such links. Since that time, Brittany Ferries has launched a new service to Roscoff and to Bilbao from Rosslare.

Rosslare is unique among the State's commercial ports as it operates outside of the Harbours Acts 1996 to 2009.  The port forms part of the Fishguard and Rosslare Railways and Harbour Company which owes its origins to the Fishguard Bay Railway and Pier Act 1893. The constituent ports of the company are nowadays the operational and financial responsibility of larnród Éireann and Stena Line Ports Limited, respectively. On account of this historic arrangement, Rosslare Europort is operated as a division of larnród Éireann.

Rosslare is the fourth largest port in the State in terms of overall tonnage handled, and the State's second largest passenger port. The port generates revenue of more than €10 million per annum, with surpluses of approximately €2.5 million. Rosslare is targeting growth and new business opportunities and has received the approval of the larnród Éireann board for a strategic plan to grow the port's business.  This includes plans for investment of about €30 million in customer facilities, port infrastructure, assets and new technology. Earlier this year, Brittany Ferries began operating between Rosslare and Roscoff and Bilbao. 

Rosslare has a significant proportion of Irish roll-on roll-off traffic at approximately 16%. Due to this, in preparation for Brexit, Rosslare has now been designated as an approved EU border control post and the Office of Public Works, OPW, is working with the various State agencies to put in place the necessary port facilities and infrastructure.

On offshore wind, in recent weeks the Dutch logistics company, XELLZ, has selected the port of Rosslare as its offshore wind supply base and has acquired private land around the port. It is early days but the company aims to tap into upcoming Irish offshore wind opportunities.

Rosslare Europort is on the Trans-European Transport Network, TEN-T, comprehensive network but it does not meet the EU criteria for TEN-T core port status. However, Rosslare Europort continues to be eligible for EU co-funding under the Connecting Europe Facility. This co-funding is available to projects on both the comprehensive and the core parts of the TEN-T network, subject to such projects satisfying the eligibility criteria of a given call for proposals, and being selected in the evaluation process.

The programme for Government commits the Government to continue to work closely with Rosslare Europort to ensure it is ready for all Brexit scenarios. The Government has underlined the importance of the UK land bridge with the European Commission negotiating team and we will continue to engage with our partners in France, the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany to ensure the land bridge remains a viable and efficient route to market. This is important for Rosslare. The programme for Government incudes a commitment to ensuring that systems at Rosslare Europort are Brexit ready and adapted to take account of Covid-19 at the end of the transition period. We will ensure this is the case and that Rosslare Europort can continue to play its full role as a critical part of Ireland's economic and social infrastructure.

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