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LAST UPDATE | 10 Jan
TAOISEACH SIMON HARRIS has welcomed the news that Holyhead port will partially reopen next week following talks with the First Minister of Wales about the matter today.
Ferry services at the port have been suspended since Storm Darragh at the start of December, but they are meant to partly recommence within the next few days.
The ferry company Stena Line, which owns the port in Anglesey, North Wales, confirmed it would reopen the Terminal 5 berth on 16 January subject to reasonable weather conditions.
This is expected to accommodate the volume of freight and passenger services in place prior to the disruption caused by Storm Darragh.
It is yet to provide a timeline for the reopening of Terminal 3.
Harris spoke with the First Minister of Wales, Eluned Morgan, today about the ongoing impact of the closure of Holyhead and to hear about how plans for its reopening were progressing.
During the call, both leaders welcomed the confirmation from port operator Stena Line that the port would partially reopen on 16 January.
They also acknowledged the significant efforts by ministers and officials, port and ferry operators, and by industry on both sides, which they said helped to address the overall impacts of the closure over the last month.
The pair had also spoken about the situation just before Christmas.
In a statement this afternoon, Harris said he and Morgan discussed the importance of continuing to work together “to ensure resilience of sea connectivity between Wales and Ireland”.
“The First Minister and I welcomed the commitment by Stena Line to oversee the partial reopening of the Port of Holyhead on 16 January. This is good news for the freight industry and for passengers from both Great Britain and Ireland on one of our busiest and more important routes,” he said.
Speaking outside Government Buildings this afternoon, Harris also welcomed the establishment of a new task force for resilience at Holyhead port by the Welsh government, adding that Ireland would work “very closely” with them on it.
“We know we live in a world where climate change is real, and we do need to look at the resilience in terms of the Holyhead port. We saw the very significant challenges that this has caused for passengers and for freight.”
He said he was grateful for the collaboration that has taken place with the Welsh government, but added: “We do need to look to the future.
“Holyhead is a really important piece of infrastructure, and we’re very pleased to join this task force with the Welsh government.”
Harris said the Government needs to make sure “that we have multiple options when it comes to freight” outside of Holyhead.
“When it comes to passengers, I think we need to continue to develop links, but we also need to support the port of Holyhead. It’s a key piece of strategically important infrastructure for both Ireland and Wales, for Ireland and the UK,” he continued.
“Whilst the initial focus must be on getting the berths back reopened, get travel and volume going back in a normal way, we also have to prepare for the future in terms of resilience.”
Minister for Transport Eamon Ryan and Minister of State James Lawless have also welcomed the news of the partial reopening.
“Ferry operators have adjusted schedules so that there will be up to eight daily sailings, ensuring no loss of usual capacity on the Dublin-Holyhead route,” the Department said.
“Once Terminal 5 is back in operation, the focus will turn to restoring Terminal 3.”
Stena Line said that on the weekend Storm Darragh hit, December 6-7, there were two incidents at the berth at Terminal 3.
It said that this resulted in part of the structure collapsing and rendering it unusable.
Damage was feared to have been much worse than initially thought and a spokesman for the Port said it had been necessary to perform underwater inspections of the structural integrity of the adjacent Terminal 3 and Terminal 5 berths.
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We should dispatch a Minister next year to Pyongyang for Paddys’s day. Maybe all of them! :)
Both countries run by lunatics !
Really good report. Very few people would have expected a connection with Ireland.
There’s always connections between countries FFS
I was in Pyongyang for a week back in September and our young “minder” didn’t even know where Ireland was so don’t assume the average joe gets to read those reports on the press site. There is no Internet but there is a special intranet which the students in the library can use to look up stuff about the “imperialist” USA. Have to say it was a bizarre week!
Don’t forget, plenty of members of the Workers’ Party, which had links to the USSR, are now high-profile members of the Labour Party.
de Rossa’s letter looking for £1 million is a good example:
http://irishelectionliterature.wordpress.com/2010/07/08/1986-letter-from-the-workers-party-to-the-communist-party-of-the-soviet-union-cpsu-looking-for-funds/
Sssush Ciaran .. some people don’t want to mention these things anymore :-/
Do ‘special activities’ include oifig an phoist and men in balaclava’s or a sponsored silence or what?
Reply from the CPSU your request for 1 million has been granted!!! “Will denomination’s of $100.00 dollar bills be OK ? See you in North Korea …have an empty suit case handy….good luck getting all those Worker Party , Democratic Left now Labour leaders & TD’s elected..see you at the next Lost Revolution Conference!!!!
Wonder what Michael D thought of getting congratulated by Kim Jong
In the 2009 St Patrick’s day greeting, Mr Kim (or his press secretary) seems to be under the impression that the former President was male: “Kim … wished the President … success in his work for the prosperity of Ireland.”
By 2010, the confusion seems to have mounted as Mr Kim opted not to identify Comrade MacAleese with any gender: “… the message wished the Irish President success …”
Great article. Having some diplomatic ties or exchanges between ourselves and countries like DPRK is certainly not something to be embarrassed about. You can’t moan about the insular and secretive nature of such states and in the same vein decry the fact that some degree of civility exists between the two, regardless of politics.
It is better to take many small steps in the right direction.. and all that
He’s no more a lunatic than George W. Bush
Well, both acted with impunity.. that’s where the similarities end, though.
They prob get a load of their info from President of the Korean Friendship Association, Alejandro Cao de Benos .. a Spaniard and total hack for the NK regime .. check out a documentary (I’m sure it’s on YouTube) called Friends of Kim .. you’ll see just how crazy he is
I was in North Korea at the end of November (must have been the last Paddy there before the Dear Leader crocked it!) and agree with Stephen above, most of the North Korean’s I spoke with hadn’t the first clue where Ireland was, never mind keeping a close eye on our current affairs.
Curiously we also did a tour to the museum that houses all the gifts from various nations to Kim Jong Il and there was some very fine Connemara marble on show courtesy of the Irish Workers Party’s trip there a few years back…nothing from Michael D yet, must be still in the post.
The DPRK was an interesting trip, would highly recommend it.
Yet again article of the week goes to Gav Reilly. Love reading his articles, he’s my favorite member of staff in the Journal.
I have heard the Koreans described as the Irish of the Orient – they’ve been under the yoke of a larger and more aggressive neighbour, plus they used to go abroad to work on building sites. While the north of both countries may be ruled by lunatics, it’s a lot easier to cross the border from Newry than Kaesong, and you won’t get thrown in prison for tuning into RTE.
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