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Irish and French government officials have contacted Brittany Ferries about operating a ferry from France to repatriate Irish truckers stranded in Europe by the French ban on traveling to Britain by Covid, should the need arise.
It is understood that the French transport minister, Jean-Baptiste Djebbari, asked the French shipping company to examine whether it could provide capacity to sail to Ireland should it be needed to accommodate Irish carriers affected by the travel ban to and from from Brittany.
There have been discussions between Irish and French government officials and with ferry companies to see if additional ships can be redirected in the wake of the ban introduced Sunday night to prevent the spread of a new infectious strain of coronavirus from Britain.
They are discussing whether Brittany Ferries should operate a ship from the port of Caen to Rosslare. The company already operates a service between Rosslare and Bilbao in Spain and is scheduled to resume a service between Rosslare and Cherbourg from March.
Government officials are evaluating whether the additional capacity provided by Stena Line with a second ferry on the Rosslare-Cherbourg route will meet the required demand.
There will be two Stena ferries leaving for Cherbourg on Tuesday after the announcement.
The European shipping company, the largest ferry operator operating in Ireland, said on Monday it would present post-Brexit plans to double capacity on the route to meet demand from customers looking for an alternative to the overland bridge route. Britain closed by French ban.
The government was also working to return 200-250 truck drivers heading to continental Europe who were stranded in Britain when the ban was announced.
“We hope to find a solution and what we can do to help those drivers get out of this jam in UK ports,” said Department of Transport State Minister Hildegarde Naughton.
Transport industry groups have raised concerns that the cancellation of ferries and trains could cause Irish truck drivers to be stranded in France.
“The fear is that our drivers will get stuck on the French side because the boats are late today and the drivers may not be able to get back in time before Christmas,” said Eugene Drennan, president of the Irish Road Transport Association (IRHA ).
Transport Minister Eamon Ryan and his French counterpart, Djebbari, spoke Monday night about arrangements to help repatriate Irish carriers stranded in Britain and mainland Europe, and about the possibility of safely reopening the Irish freight to Europe via Great Britain.
Insufficient capacity
The independent TD Verona Murphy said the Covid travel ban showed that there was insufficient capacity on direct ferries to continental Europe to transport land cargo by road, questioning the findings of a report by Ireland’s Office of Maritime Development on last month.
“I have eight trucks loaded this morning at three factories worth € 1 million with no reserves,” said Wexford TD, a former IRHA president who runs a transportation business.
Up to 15 trips from Rosslare to mainland Europe, including new routes from 2021, have the capacity to carry 100,000-120,000 trucks over the course of a year, compared to 150,000-170,000 trucks crossing the UK land bridge. every year.
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