FERRIES:THE MAIN ferry companies have not responded positively to calls from the Government's taskforce for a review of existing capacity on the Irish Sea.
Speaking after yesterday morning’s meeting of the taskforce Maurice Mullen, assistant secretary general of the Department of Transport said the taskforce was “requesting ferry companies to review the capacity in the light of any increased demands being made.”
“The information from ferry companies was that there continued to be capacity for passengers”, he said, but the taskforce was asking those companies to be mindful of passenger needs as flights remain grounded.
However, while both Irish Ferries vessels out of Dublin Port were expected to be full, it was expected there would be capacity on a sailing last night. A statement from the company said as of yesterday morning space was available “on all Irish Ferries services to the UK.”
This included four daily sailings from Dublin to Holyhead and two from Rosslare to Pembroke.
Similarly Stena Line said everyone “who wants to get out will get out if they are prepared to be flexible”. Stena has carried an additional 30,000 passengers on its Irish Sea routes which serve the ports of Belfast, Dublin, Dún Laoghaire and Rosslare over the past four days. The company has 17 sailings across the Irish Sea each day.
The busiest routes out of Ireland yesterday were on the central corridor from Dublin and Dún Laoghaire to Holyhead, but Stena Line spokesman Eamon Hewitt said there was spare capacity in Rosslare and he added the HSSfrom Belfast has capacity for 1,500 passengers with three sailings a day.
The Stena Sea Lynxwhich travels from Dún Laoghaire has been reduced to one round trip per day from two, due to technical problems. However, it is expected to be back to full service today.
:quality(70)/s3.amazonaws.com/arc-authors/irishtimes/8a09a42a-bf7b-491e-848d-432f8309b3fa.png)