Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Government has made a range of financial and advisory supports available to all sectors, including the haulage and logistics sector. Details can be found in our Brexit Readiness Action Plan which we published a couple of weeks ago. I urge any business moving goods to or through Great Britain to take steps to understand and prepare for the changes that are coming on 1 January, trade deal or no trade deal.

It is also important to be aware of the new systems being put in place by UK authorities as set out in the UK's Border Operating Model. An update to the model is expected in the near future and people should certainly keep an eye out for the detail of that.

However, even with these preparations, delays at ports are likely immediately after the end of the transition period at the end of this year. We have highlighted this for some time including in our 2019 and 2020 readiness plans, with Dover-Calais identified as a particular likely bottleneck. This is outside of our control.

Ministers and officials are engaging regularly with their key stakeholders. I understand that engagement with the shipping, haulage and logistics representatives takes place on a fortnightly basis.

Goods moving directly between Ireland and elsewhere in the EU will not be subject to any new procedures. The Government has been engaging extensively with the shipping sector to assess the capacity available on direct routes to continental ports and I am working closely with the Minister for Transport, Deputy Eamon Ryan. We met on this issue and talked about it in some detail last week.

A number of new direct services have been launched in the past year. The shipping sector has indicated that sufficient capacity is available on direct routes to continental ports. I understand that direct routes are operating at about 40% capacity. After the Deputy asks further questions, I can go through the routes we are talking about. This is also the view of the Department of Transport and the assessment of capacity by the Irish Maritime Development Office.

I encourage engagement between traders, hauliers and ferry companies to align capacity with needs and demand. Where it is feasible to do so, businesses should also consider moving to direct services now. I suggest that they use the month of November as a test period to look at new supply chains as they may need them as a contingency for the period around 1 January.

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