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Displaying items by tag: IrishUK trade

Ireland will never return to the type of trading relationship it enjoyed with Britain prior to Brexit, a leading customs official said on Monday as he warned of potential disruption for exporters.

Speaking at a briefing held at Dublin Port, Tom Talbot, head of Revenue’s customs operations (story), said ports were dealing well with post-Brexit border checks on goods coming from Britain into the Republic.

Just over two months since the introduction of border controls on imports following Britain’s exit from the European Union, Mr Talbot said traffic was still significantly lower than for the same period a year ago, which he attributed to a number of factors including stockpiling ahead of Brexit and the impact of store closures due to the Covid lockdown.

Checks

He said that currently about 80 per cent of all freight from Britain is being “green-routed”, meaning they can immediately proceed on their journey. Of the other 20 per cent, most of this is “orange-routed”, meaning document checks are required, while about 4 per cent is “red-routed”, indicating a physical check is necessary.

Mr Talbot said Revenue was happy with the level being achieved so far and said there would never be a day when all UK traffic could be green-routed.

“In practical terms the requirements that now apply to trade with the UK mean that there never will be a scenario that 100 per cent of goods ... will be able to arrive through the port seamlessly as they did when Britain was part of the EU,” said Mr Talbot.

The Irish Times has more including new figures released where from January 1st to February 28th there were 50,800 freight vehicle movements into Ireland from more than 870 ferries from Britain with over 2.6m import declarations processed.

During the same period there were 46,500 movements from the Republic to Britain. And some 320,000 export declarations.

Afloat adds further figures released on 1st March can be consulted on Gov.ie's Operational Update (2 month post-Brexit transition). The update highlights in depth the overall trading /shipping scene with a listing of 10 key headings.  

Published in Irish Ports

#IrishUKTrade - Enterprise Ireland are to seek its clients to be less reliant on the UK markets. The Irish Times writes the reduction will cut the proportion of their exports that go to Britain by about seven percentage points over the next five years, following the UK’s decision to leave the EU.

The agency responsible for helping Irish companies export to international markets, saw exports to the UK increase last year by 12 per cent to €7.5 billion.

The UK remains the Republic’s largest export market, though exports there as a proportion of Enterprise Ireland’s total client exports has declined from 45 per cent in 2005 to 37 per cent in 2015.

Enterprise Ireland UK and northern Europe director Marina Donohoe said on Monday “it would certainly be the intention” to reduce the figure further over the next number of years to mitigate the fallout from the referendum result.

For more on this story, click here.

Published in Ports & Shipping

Marine Institute Research Vessel Tom Crean

Ireland’s new marine research vessel will be named the RV Tom Crean after the renowned County Kerry seaman and explorer who undertook three major groundbreaking expeditions to the Antarctic in the early years of the 20th Century which sought to increase scientific knowledge and to explore unreached areas of the world, at that time.

Ireland's new multi-purpose marine research vessel RV Tom Crean, was delivered in July 2022 and will be used by the Marine Institute and other State agencies and universities to undertake fisheries research, oceanographic and environmental research, seabed mapping surveys; as well as maintaining and deploying weather buoys, observational infrastructure and Remotely Operated Vehicles.

The RV Tom Crean will also enable the Marine Institute to continue to lead and support high-quality scientific surveys that contribute to Ireland's position as a leader in marine science. The research vessel is a modern, multipurpose, silent vessel (designed to meet the stringent criteria of the ICES 209 noise standard for fisheries research), capable of operating in the Irish Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ). The Tom Crean is able to go to sea for at least 21 days at a time and is designed to operate in harsh sea conditions.

RV Tom Crean Specification Overview

  • Length Overall: 52.8 m
  • Beam 14m
  • Draft 5.2M 

Power

  • Main Propulsion Motor 2000 kw
  • Bow Thruster 780 kw
  • Tunnel thruster 400 kw

Other

  • Endurance  21 Days
  • Range of 8,000 nautical miles
  • DP1 Dynamic Positioning
  • Capacity for 3 x 20ft Containers

Irish Marine Research activities

The new state-of-the-art multi-purpose marine research vessel will carry out a wide range of marine research activities, including vital fisheries, climate change-related research, seabed mapping and oceanography.

The new 52.8-metre modern research vessel, which will replace the 31-metre RV Celtic Voyager, has been commissioned with funding provided by the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine approved by the Government of Ireland.

According to Aodhán FitzGerald, Research Vessel Manager of the MI, the RV Tom Crean will feature an articulated boom crane aft (6t@ 10m, 3T@ 15m), located on the aft-gantry. This will be largely used for loading science equipment and net and equipment handling offshore.

Mounted at the stern is a 10T A-frame aft which can articulate through 170 degrees which are for deploying and recovering large science equipment such as a remotely operated vehicle (ROV’s), towed sleds and for fishing operations.

In addition the fitting of an 8 Ton starboard side T Frame for deploying grabs and corers to 4000m which is the same depth applicable to when the vessel is heaving but is compensated by a CTD system consisting of a winch and frame during such operations.

The vessel will have the regulation MOB boat on a dedicated davit and the facility to carry a 6.5m Rigid Inflatable tender on the port side.

Also at the aft deck is where the 'Holland 1' Work class ROV and the University of Limericks 'Etain' sub-Atlantic ROV will be positioned. In addition up to 3 x 20’ (TEU) containers can be carried.

The newbuild has been engineered to endure increasing harsher conditions and the punishing weather systems encountered in the North-East Atlantic where deployments of RV Tom Crean on surveys spent up to 21 days duration.

In addition, RV Tom Crean will be able to operate in an ultra silent-mode, which is crucial to meet the stringent criteria of the ICES 209 noise standard for fisheries research purposes.

The classification of the newbuild as been appointed to Lloyds and below is a list of the main capabilities and duties to be tasked by RV Tom Crean:

  • Oceanographic surveys, incl. CTD water sampling
  • Fishery research operations
  • Acoustic research operations
  • Environmental research and sampling operation incl. coring
  • ROV and AUV/ASV Surveys
  • Buoy/Mooring operations