Covid-19: Government to help Irish truckers stranded at UK ports, says Coveney Some Irish hauliers will have to look at other routes to Europe, says Eamon Ryan
Mon, Dec 21, 2020, 09:30 Updated: Mon, Dec 21, 2020, 11:32 Vivienne Clarke
File photo dated December 11th of lorries queuing to access the Eurotunnel site near Folkestone in Kent. Photograph: Gareth Fuller/PA Wire
Minister for Foreign Affairs Simon Coveney has said that everything possible will be done to repatriate Irish truck drivers stranded at UK ports trying to get to the Continent.
Up to 250 Irish lorries stuck in England face returning home and dumping product after France banned road freight from Britain due to a new Covid-19 strain.
Stena Line brings forward doubling of Ireland-France freight route
Written by Business World, on 21st Dec 2020. Posted in General
Ferry firm Stena Line has brought forward a planned doubling of its direct Ireland to France freight service in response to huge demand from Irish hauliers hit by the closure of the French border to arrivals from Britain.
While freight services were exempt from Ireland s ban on Sunday on travel to Britain over fears of a new coronavirus strain, around 3,000 lorries take the shorter route to mainland Europe via the so-called British land-bridge each week.
Stena had planned to add a second ship to its service from Ireland s Rosslare harbor to the French port of Cherbourg from Jan. 4, doubling the number of weekly sailings to six as Britain s Brexit transition period came to an end.
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Extra ferry sailings will be needed to circumvent the ban on trucks from the UK entering France.
A shock ban on freight from the UK imposed by France on Sunday evening has huge implications for Irish agri food exports, Independent TD Verona Murphy has said.
“The landbridge to Europe is now defunct,” she told the
Irish Farmers Journal. “This is unprecedented.”
“There is a hell of a lot of stockpiling going on,” she said, adding that most of the stockpiling was food.
Haulage companies will now have to find direct routes to France to circumvent the ban on all freight from the UK to France.
A travel ban imposed by a number of countries on Britain has left about 200 Irish truckers stranded in the south-east of England as they try to make their way with freight from Ireland to the continent.
The president of the Irish Road Haulage Association (IRHA), Eugene Drennan, has criticised the Government for what he said was a failure to act to safeguard Ireland’s freight connectivity with mainland Europe.
But Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe has urged shoppers to be confident about Ireland s ability to maintain supply chains for food and other goods.
While freight traffic between Britain and Ireland – which mostly comes by sea – is still permitted under the 48-hour travel ban imposed by the Government here, snarl-ups at ports across the UK are causing havoc.
17.42 21 Dec 2020
The emergence of a new strand of coronavirus has sent much the world into a sort of panic, with many countries now banning travel to and from the UK for the next 48 hours at least.
But what is the real effect of this travel ban?
Sandra is a nurse working in Liverpool, and was planning on coming home for Christmas, but now won t be able to.
Sky News Adam Boulton gave Kieran the latest from the UK, and Eugene Drennan of the Irish Road Haulage Association gave the latest from the borders.
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