The multi-million euro cruise-liner industry in Ireland may not recover from the fallout of the Covid-19 pandemic for three or four years.

As the Independent.ie writes, the warning came as Government sources indicated there are no plans to lift a ban on major cruise liners operating from Irish ports as part of their ongoing pandemic-control measures.

Worth an estimated €70m to the Irish economy, the pandemic came as a crippling blow to the industry which had been expanding over the past 15 years following decades of decline since its 1950s heyday.

Several cruise liners including the Diamond Princess and MS Zaandam found themselves the focus of international headlines earlier this year when some passengers tested positive for Covid-19 and the ships were denied normal berthing in Japan and South American.

Within weeks of the pandemic, the entire global cruise-liner industry had ground to a halt.

It came as a cruel blow for several Irish ports, among them Dublin and Cork as mentioned in more of this story.