Ireland’s main ports handled 13.8 million tonnes of goods in the second quarter of the year, up 14 per cent on the same period in 2024, the Central Statistics Office (CSO) said on Wednesday.
The latest port statistics include figures for Greenore, Co Louth, bringing to eight the number of main ports included in the statistics.
Under international statistical guidelines, Greenore was classified as a main port earlier this year, meaning it handled in excess of one million tonnes of goods or 200,000 passengers each year for three consecutive years.
For that reason, the CSO said Wednesday’s figures are difficult to compare to last year’s second-quarter data.
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Yet, the figures show that Dublin Port, the State’s busiest roll-on/roll-off and container shipping port, handled some 6,543, up by just over 1 per cent on the same period last year.
Some 1,835 arrived in Dublin Port between April and June, accounting for 59 per cent of all arrivals in the Republic.
Published recently, Dublin Port Company’s annual report revealed that port throughput was down slightly last year to 35.2 million tonnes, a decrease of 1.2 per cent on 2023.
Still, revenues jumped by 5 per cent to €106.26 million, despite the closure of Boliden Tara Mines for most of 2024, which hit volumes passing through the port.
In his report, Dublin Port chief executive, Barry O’Connell, said the increase in revenues “was largely driven by price increases and increased activity levels in towage and pilotage services offsetting reduced volumes”.
Tourist traffic also fell in 2024 with passengers and tourist vehicles down by 6 per cent and 7.7 per cent respectively.
