Holyhead: Clarity needed over port reopening date, say hauliers

Dublin to Holyhead offers the shortest route between Ireland and England for freight and passenger ferries.

Stena Line and Irish Ferries each operate four daily ferry sailings travelling each way between Holyhead and Dublin.

A number of additional routes and services have been put in place: Dublin to Liverpool, Dublin to Heysham, Dublin to Fishguard and from Belfast to Cairnryan.

Stena Line has added an extra sailing, at 23:30 GMT, from both Belfast and Cairnryan on 24 December in an effort to alleviate the build-up of traffic at the ports.

The closure had already led Ireland’s national postal service to abandon plans to use Holyhead for Christmas deliveries.

Mr Hyland described the port as the most vital piece of infrastructure between Ireland and the UK.

“This has shown how vulnerable we are to the port of Holyhead and even when Holyhead is up and running, we just can’t be as reliant on the one port as we have been,” he added.

“I don’t think the UK gets how important Holyhead is to the UK’s economy. It’s important to the Irish economy but every bit as important to the UK economy.”