Fury as Irish Ferries announces end of Rosslare service in major blow to South East

KILKENNY and the entire South East region received a major blow with the announcement that Irish Ferries is unlikely to operate a service between Rosslare and France next year.

Irish Continental Group (ICG), the company behind the ferry firm, has claimed passengers have expressed a preference for travelling from Dublin.

“Irish Ferries wish to inform our customers that we’re unlikely to operate a service between Rosslare and France in 2019,” the company said in a statement yesterday. “We continue to keep this situation under review.”

IFG also confirmed its new WB Yeats ship will operate from Dublin to Cherbourg.

Verona Murphy, president of the Irish Road Haulage Association, hit out at the announcement and said it made no sense.

“There’s absolutely no reason why the WB Yeats can’t operate from Rosslare,” she said.

Ms Murphy said hauliers would now look at using a different operator. She argued that significantly more traffic would be forced on to the M50 and questioned how the network would cope with this.

Labour leader Brendan Howlin also criticised the plan. He said the decision to abandon the shortest sea route to France just as Brexit kicks in was “inexplicable”.

The ferry company claimed a majority of its customers have a “clear preference” for the more central location and easy access of Dublin.

Junior Transport Minister Brendan Griffin last night said that, given the importance of the service for the South East region, he has asked his officials to “engage with the company”.

“From a tourism perspective, while it mainly facilitates Irish tourists holidaying in France, it also brings French and other European tourists to the South East region,” he added.

Last year, up to 19,000 passengers had their holiday plans thrown into disarray after the company announced delays to the arrival of the WB Yeats ferry.

The €154m ship was due to start sailing between Ireland and France and the UK from July 30 last year, but all sailings up to September 13 were later cancelled.

The company has said new ferry will finally arrive in Dublin this week.

In recent months, many local customers took to social media to express fears for their holidays after ICG delayed publishing its French schedules for 2019.