Fears that the closure of Holyhead would lead to spartan supermarket shelves in the run-up to Christmas have receded with contingency plans deployed by retailers said to be working well.
An Post has also cleared the significant backlog of parcels that were held up at the port after it was forced to close in the wake of Storm Darragh, and while it has been operating at reduced capacity, it is confident deliveries from Britain to Ireland will make it to Irish homes on time for Christmas.
Passenger ferry companies have also added capacity on alternative routes, although thousands of people still face an anxious wait to see whether they can be accommodated on crossings to Ireland in the run-up to Christmas or face the prospect of sky-high airfares.
By announcing that Holyhead Port would remain closed until the middle of next month at the earliest, the authorities have removed the “moving deadline” which Retail Ireland described as “very frustrating in terms of contingency planning”.
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Arnold Dillon of the Ibec umbrella group said that since the start of this week, retailers had fully implemented contingency plans and “successfully secured capacity on alternative routes to Ireland from the UK”.
He said major food retailers are now confident the closure of the port “will have very limited impact on customers, now that contingency plans are in place”.
He noted that most fresh produce is sourced on the island of Ireland, while much of the ambient produce for the Christmas market is already in the country.
“While there are some delays still in the system, this will likely only affect a very small number of products. There will be no gaps on shelves over the coming days,” he said.
He noted many online retailers have managed to clear the backlog caused by the closure over recent days and are “operating relatively smoothly via alternative routes, although this may involve slightly longer shipping times”.
An Post is increasingly confident the delivery problems it encountered in the early days of the crisis have been largely resolved as a result of “massive collaboration by freight companies, ferries and An Post”.
Spokeswoman Anna McHugh said An Post was at “full tilt” with deliveries from Europe and ports that have been opened to Irish deliveries since last weekend.
“Despite all these workabouts, we are still operating with about 15 per cent less capacity than we’d have with the six usual huge sailings from Holyhead each day. We also have regular and some additional incoming air freight.”
She said a downside is “that it takes lorries longer to reach some of these [other] ports, and the sailing time is greater too. But so far, so good – we are in good shape and the weather has behaved itself.”
The most significant outstanding issue is passenger traffic, with about 100,000 people facing anxious waits to see whether they will be accommodated on alternative routes deployed by Irish Ferries and Stena Line.
On Wednesday evening, a spokesman for Stena said work was continuing “around the clock to provide customers with alternative travel arrangements”.
It is offering sailings for passengers and freight from Dublin to ports in Birkenhead and Fishguard and added additional sailings on the Belfast-Cairnryan route this weekend, while availability on the Belfast-Liverpool and Rosslare-Fishguard routes was described as limited.
Irish Ferries has added capacity on the Rosslare-Pembroke route and said it was “working with UK ports with a view to adding further sailings to/from Ireland”.
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