By Peter McLaren-Kennedy • Published: 21 Jan 2022 • 15:01
The Dublin Port chief executive has said that Brexit ended the fastest and preferred Irish EU trade route, and that it is unlikely to recover going forward. Speaking to Irish Times, Dublin Port Chief Executive Eamonn O’Reilly said: “The land bridge has gone. It hasn’t re-emerged. I thought it would but it hasn’t and there’s nothing to suggest it is going to in my mind because the British have yet to introduce import controls. I don’t see the land bridge recovering.” Check introduced on some goods since Britain left the European Union’s trading bloc at the end of 2020 has resulted in a sharp fall in trade between it and EU-member Ireland and an increase in shipping routes from Ireland to mainland Europe. The volume of accompanied freight on the main routes between Dublin and Britain fell by 21% to 703,000 while the 259,000 units on direct routes to continental Europe represented a three-fold increase, figures from Ireland’s largest port showed. The land bridge had for decades offered the swiftest, most reliable route to mainland Europe. It involved a short sea crossing between Dublin and Holyhead in Wales and then a hop between Dover and Calais in France. Rosslare, the second largest port in Ireland has also benefitted from the move towards direct European routes, while more Irish goods are being shipped to Britain via Northern Ireland as there are no checks in the British-run region. The drop in movement via the UK comes as no surprise given the added checks and bureaucracy. Whether it will ever recover as the fastest Irish EU trade route depends very much on whether the EU and the UK are able to resolve their differences.
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Originally from South Africa, Peter is based on the Costa Blanca and is a web reporter for the Euro Weekly News covering international and Spanish national news. Got a news story you want to share? Then get in touch at editorial@euroweeklynews.com.
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