Darren O'Rourke (Meath East, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I have raised this issue with the Minister before. My contribution will focus on how Brexit will affect our road haulage sector and the impact it will have on those using the landbridge through Britain to transport goods onto and off this island. The Copenhagen Economics report commissioned by the Department of Business, Enterprise and Innovation found that two thirds of Irish goods exporters or 150,000 heavy goods vehicles make use of the UK landbridge to access continental markets each year. It is a vital route but one that is under threat as a result of Brexit.

Whether it is a hard, soft or indifferent Brexit, new checks and procedures as a result of Britain leaving the European Union will mean significant delays and queues at the Dover-Calais crossing and there is the promise of significant delays at Holyhead and on the Irish side too. These delays will impact on the sector hugely and the Government must move decisively to mitigate this impending crisis for as many hauliers as possible. A report from the Irish Maritime Development Office published in the past few days states that there are currently sufficient shipping connections and capacity to accommodate hauliers who want to bypass Britain and sail directly to continental Europe in order to avoid the delays that will inevitably arise there in January. This, I have to say, came as a shock to many in the road haulage sector who were not consulted in the context of the report and who would dispute the Irish Maritime Development Office’s findings. It is a statement of fact that there is a clear deficit in current roll-on, roll-off services to Europe and gaps in the current shipping schedule to the Continent. We do not, for example, have daily sailings departing for the Continent every day. Exports, such as perishables for example, depend on just-in-time logistics and such gaps in departure times cannot be afforded.

Sinn Féin believes that the Government should prepare contingency plans for State-supported shipping routes, including public service obligation routes. These should be focused on roll-on, roll-off services where vehicles that currently use the land bridge have the option of using new, frequent and direct routes to the Continent that reduce the time at sea to the bare minimum. Leaving it solely up to private companies to put these essential shipping connections in place is an incredibly risky strategy, particularly given the critical importance of these routes for food imports and exports. When I raised this issue with the Minister of State, Deputy Hildegarde Naughton, she stated that it was up to individual haulage companies to contact ferry companies, essentially in order to stoke up demand. I have engaged with hauliers, very many of whom are from my constituency and my family has worked in haulage for many years. I have engaged with ferry companies as well. I welcome the fact that there is going to be a focus on this matter at the transport committee in the coming weeks but there is not enough focus on it yet from Government. We need to see that because time is of the essence.

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