IT IS “HIGHLY unlikely” that Holyhead port will be functioning this side of Christmas, according to Taoiseach Simon Harris. 

Speaking to reporters in Dun Laoghaire today, the Taoiseach said the “seriousness” of the damage was becoming “more apparent as the days go by”.

“I think it’s highly unlikely now that we will see Holyhead port functioning in any real way this side of Christmas and of course, that is a serious concern to both people who’ve bought goods and presents and gifts that they’re hoping will arrive, and also people that are understandably trying to get home for the Christmas period,” he said.

“What I can say is this a huge amount of work is ongoing in government on this issue. Today, the Minister for Transport and the Minister of State for Transport will meet their Welsh counterparts.”

Minister for Transport Eamon Ryan and junior Minister James Lawless met with Stena Line and Irish Ferries this afternoon to seek urgent extra capacity for ferries travelling between Ireland and the UK, as tens of thousands of ferry passengers face travel chaos due to the temporary closure of Holyhead port.

The minister also met with representatives from other industries affected by the delays this morning. 

Lawless acknowledged today that it “seems to be unlikely” that Holyhead port would be functional again by Christmas, despite initial hopes that the Welsh port would reopen by Thursday 19 December.

The port has been closed due to damage caused during Storm Darragh.

With the port unlikely to get the green light to open, thousands of cars are now set to reroute to different ports in Britain to travel home to Ireland.

At the moment, frustrated ferry customers are being rerouted to Birkenhead and are arriving into Belfast instead of Dublin, creating a longer ferry journey and major transport diversions for passengers.

Lawless told RTÉ’s Morning Ireland that he will meet with representatives from Stena Line and Irish Ferries this afternoon to discuss added capacity for ferries between Britain and Ireland over the festive period.

“We really need them to do everything that they can to ramp up capacity on alternative routes and add vessels and add capacity and container storage,” Lawless said.

It is hoped extra spaces in locations such as Larne and Birkenhead, near Liverpool, will provide additional capacity.

“We also need, in the case of Stena Line, them to give us accurate and timely updates as to what’s happening and Holyhead”, Lawless added.

Stena Line, owners of Holyhead Port, have cancelled all ferry services between Dublin and Holyhead until at least Friday 20th December.

Commercial shipping has also been affected by the port closure, with An Post saying in a statement yesterday that it had abandoned its plans of using Holyhead port for Christmas deliveries.

An Post added that it was confident presents would arrive on time via alternative routes despite a huge backlog of parcels.

The national postal service said 500,000 items had been diverted and reached Ireland using shipping routes from Pembrokeshire, Larne and Liverpool.

In a bid to ease shipping backlog pressures, the government agreed to a temporary extension of legal driving hours for hauliers for the next two weeks on Saturday.

The urgent rule change by the Department of Transport over the weekend saw Irish hauliers allowed to drive more and rest less in the run-up to Christmas.

Harris said today that extra capacity is being sought.

“We will look at every possibility in terms of providing additional capacity. We’ve already made it very clear that we will put on extra shuttle busses and the likes, should we be able to get other fairy crossings to other ports.

“So there’s a lot of work going on to make sure people can get home for Christmas and to make sure as many gifts as possible can be here in time for Christmas, we’ll have a further update after the meeting,” said Harris.

With reporting by Christina Finn