Marc Ó Cathasaigh (Waterford, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

Rosslare Europort has been a real success story over the last number of years in its freight response to things like Brexit, for example, and in terms of the passenger numbers that are arriving. People are increasingly choosing to travel by ferry. There might be a range of reasons for that. It might be that they get to bring their car. There are also a certain number of people who are choosing to fly less and use other modes of transport to arrive at their tourist destinations. However, not every service that is coming in and out of Rosslare Europort offers that foot passenger option. For example, I know that one of the routes goes to Bilbao. I would very much like to go on that ferry journey. I do not particularly want to have my car with me when I arrive there. I find having my car in Europe only adds to my stress, rather than anything else, with driving on the wrong side of the road etc. We really need to focus on that offering. We must ensure that when people arrive as foot passengers, it is a nicer place to arrive into. We must ensure that there is a seamless transport option for foot passengers to take them to the places in the country that they want to visit.

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