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

Foot passengers are currently able to travel to France on ferry services, with the exception of one operator over the winter months due to operational constraints. I understand that the Deputy's question was prompted by the announcement last Thursday regarding increased service frequencies on roll-on roll-off passenger, RoPax, ferry services from Ireland to France from January 2021 and by the publication of the Irish Maritime Development Office, IMDO, report regarding capacity on continental services.

With the Brexit transition period coming to an end on 31 December and the resultant delays that are expected on the UK land bridge, I welcomed the IMDO report which found that there was more than sufficient spare capacity to accommodate any displaced land bridge traffic on direct routes to the continent. I also welcome the decision by both Irish Ferries and Stena Line to increase the frequency of their services to France in January 2021, providing more capacity and options to both business and passengers.

Ferry operators providing services on Ireland to France routes are private companies and any decision to restrict access to vehicle traffic only is a commercial decision made by the companies. While one operator does restrict access to foot passengers over the winter months, there are and will continue to be alternative foot passenger options to France available all year round. These options easily cover the demand there is for foot passengers on this route which is reported as negligible at present. Covid-19 did lead to additional foot passenger capacity restrictions on some services in 2020. This was based on operators having significantly reduced capacity to meet health protocols and facilitate social distancing onboard ships, which reduced the cabin numbers available for sale. These operators report that they expect to be back to normal capacity in 2021, when they will welcome foot passengers on their French services as normal.

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