Highly unlikely’ Holyhead will reopen before Christmas, Irish premier says

Damage done to Holyhead port during Storm Darragh is feared to be worse than originally thought, and could see ferry services cancelled until after Christmas.

This could result in Christmas parcels travelling to and from Ireland being delayed until after the festive season.

It was announced after Storm Darragh that the Port of Holyhead, owned by ferry company Stena Line, was to remain closed until December 20, with all services cancelled until then.

‘Imperative’

In a statement issued at the weekend, Ken Skates MS, Cabinet Secretary for Transport and North Wales, said: “…it is imperative that the Port of Holyhead restores its operational capability at the earliest possible opportunity.

“I understand that the Port is focusing on restoring one of its berths with an amended timetable, as a means to get ferry capacity reinstated as quickly as possible.

“Safety must remain a priority, so the Port will only re-start services when properly ready to do so, but I know that the team at the Port are working as hard as they can to resume operations at the earliest possible opportunity.”

Irish premier Simon Harris said on Monday the “seriousness” of the damage was becoming “more apparent as the days go by”.

“I think it’s highly unlikely now that we will see Holyhead port functioning in any real way this side of Christmas and of course, that is a serious concern to both people who’ve bought goods and presents and gifts that they’re hoping will arrive, and also people that are understandably trying to get home for the Christmas period,” he said in Dun Laoghaire.

“What I can say is this a huge amount of work is ongoing in government on this issue. Today, the Minister for Transport and the Minister of State for Transport will meet their Welsh counterparts.”

‘Timely updates’

Ireland’s junior minister at the Department of Transport James Lawless met with Mr Skates on Sunday and both are due to meet with Stena Line at 1pm on Monday.

Mr Lawless said both ministers are asking for Stena Line to give more “accurate and timely” updates on the scale of the damage and repairs needed at Holyhead.

“It’s a very challenging situation and probably the worst possible time of year for something like this to happen, with people anxiously waiting for parcels to arrive,” he told RTE’s Morning Ireland.

“A lot of small exporters from Ireland wanted to get the goods to the Christmas market in UK and vice versa, as well as all the normal business that transacts, and then of course, persons looking to come home for Christmas.”

He said Mr Skates has committed to also temporarily relax driver rules as had been done by the Irish government over the weekend.

Ireland’s Department of Transport announced that it would ease rules around haulier hours until December 27, allowing drivers to do more hours and take fewer breaks.

Backlog

Mr Lawless said that this being introduced from both sides at Holyhead would help to clear the backlog of deliveries.

He also said he was engaging with his Scottish and Northern Ireland counterparts in relation to delays.

Ireland’s postal service An Post said it had delivered the vast majority of items ordered before Storm Darragh, with just 16,000 of the 500,000 yet to be received.

It said ferry capacity has been created in other ferry lanes into Ireland and additional sailings have been added to schedules.

Mr Harris said: “We will look at every possibility in terms of providing additional capacity. We’ve already made it very clear that we will put on extra shuttle busses and the likes, should we be able to get other fairy crossings to other ports.

“So there’s a lot of work going on to make sure people can get home for Christmas and to make sure as many gifts as possible can be here in time for Christmas, we’ll have a further update after the meeting.”

Berthing incidents

A spokesperson at Holyhead Port said that on the weekend Storm Darragh hit, December 6-7, “two separate berthing incidents occurred affecting the Terminal 3 berth used by Irish Ferries – resulting in part of the berth structure collapsing and rendering it unusable”.

They added: “Given the scale of the damage, it has been necessary to perform underwater inspections of the structural integrity of the adjacent Terminal 3 and Terminal 5 berths, which could only commence once Storm Darragh had passed, early last Tuesday morning.

“This process is still ongoing, and we will provide an update as soon as we are able to.

“We understand that the closure of the port has had a significant impact on trade, passengers and port customers and we are aware of the disruption this has caused.

“The safety of all persons involved in the berthing arrangements; including our staff, contractors and of course our customers is our number one priority and we will only permit ferry services to recommence once we are sure it is safe to do so.”