Ferry operator floats idea of green lanes on Dublin-Holyhead route for goods bound for North

Shipping firm Stena Line has called for green lanes on the Dublin-Holyhead route for Northern Ireland-bound goods similar to the lanes proposed for the North’s ports under the new Brexit deal.

The largest ferry company serving Irish Sea ports wants freight companies moving loads from Britain to Northern Ireland through Dublin Port “via the Irish land bridge” to be “treated equally” with those shipping on direct ferry routes to Northern Ireland.

Stena floated the idea in a statement setting out the company’s response to the Windsor Framework. The new EU-UK deal, announced on Monday, proposes to remove customs checks at Northern Ireland’s ports on goods shipped from Britain destined only for Northern Ireland.

The deal would create red lanes at Northern Ireland’s ports for goods moving on to the Republic where they would still be subject to customs checks and inspections under EU food and plant health rules.

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“What we need now is alignment with Wales and the removal of the current disparity between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland because Britain intrinsically trades with the island of Ireland as a whole,” Stena said.

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Stena has applied for free port status for Holyhead, the Welsh port it owns and operates, that would simplify transit processes for lorries travelling from the Republic to mainland EU.

The company said that with initiatives such as free port status for Holyhead, which would make goods imported into the port exempt from taxes normally paid to the UK government, it is hoping that it “can simplify trade on the indirect routes to Northern Ireland” through Dublin Port.

This would mean “freight companies moving loads through Dublin and northwards via the Irish land bridge can be treated equally and with the same benefits as those moving their loads direct.”

In response to the deal, the ferry operator said the “decisive” Windsor Framework “creates surety of movement and removes the notion of a border in the Irish Sea between Britain and Northern Ireland.”

“The green channel will restore the smooth flow of freight that we had to the region prior to Brexit,” Stena said.

Operating two vessels on the route between Dublin and Holyhead, Stena sails into the State’s largest port four times a day. It also operates a service between Rosslare and Fishguard.

Management at Dublin and Rosslare ports told an Oireachtas committee on Wednesday that, since Brexit, they have seen large volumes of freight moving from Irish Sea routes to direct routes with Europe as traders avoid costly post-Brexit border controls transiting through Britain.

Stena said restoring freight flows on the British land bridge would lower costs for customers in Ireland and Europe along with lowering the environmental cost as it claimed land bridge freight emitted 21 per cent less carbon emissions than direct freight between Ireland and France.