Republic’s reliance on Port of Dublin is threat to supply of goods post-Brexit: report
THE overdependence on Dublin Port for trade traffic raises serious supply security issues in the context of Brexit, a report from the Irish Academy of Engineering has warned.
Dublin Port’s share of Ireland’s roll-on roll-off (Ro-Ro) traffic has increased from just over 55% in 1987 to almost 90% in 2015, the report by the all-island body has noted.
At the same time Dublin’s share of Ireland’s load-on loadOff (Lo-Lo) traffic increased from almost 55% in 1987 to 72.5% in 2015. The report argued that the Irish Government’s policy regarding port development appears “wholly unsuited to the problems posed by Brexit”.
“Up to 500,000 unitised freight movements each year could potentially be rerouted from Dublin to south coast ports by 2020 or soon thereafter,” the report concludes.
“Were this to happen it would reduce Dublin’s share of unitised freight to over 50%, the level obtaining in the 1980s and a lev--
el consistent with the Greater Dublin Area’s share of the population.”
The report said this would require a significant change in inland distribution and logistics chains.
“This would help overcome the impact of Brexit, improve national supply security, facilitate balanced regional development and benefit the Dublin region, by reducing M50 traffic and possibly making 20 hectares of land available in the Poolbeg Peninsula for residential and commercial purposes.”