Ports in Northern Ireland Stormont Committee Hears Physical Posts Set for Funding

14th May 2020

Funding for phycial posts in Northern Ports. AFLOAT adds updates on Belfast Harbour (as above) freight and passenger ferries of Stena Line berthed at the VT2 terminal and partially in the photo is ro-ro freight ferry Stena Forecaster (which Afloat reported in April) was temporarily withdrawn from Belfast-Birkenhead (Liverpool) route due to impact of Covid19. The freightship had since returned to service but as of this morning's Afloat tracked inbound sailing, noting subsequent services on the Irish Sea route have been cancelled by this ship until 1 June. Also in the foreground is a ship to shore (STS) container crane which was transported by sea from Cork Harbour (reported in March) which have since been erected. The STS crane was moved to VT3 to increase efficiency of handling essential goods for Northern Ireland. Credit: Belfast Harbour-twitter

Ports in Northern Ireland with physical posts are set for funding ahead of the UK’s exit from the EU, a Stormont committee has been told.

According to the Press Association, Junior Minister Declan Kearney told the committee that the Executive had been given a briefing by officials on Monday on the latest stage of Brexit negotiations between the UK government and the EU.

He went on to say that the London government has “confirmed that it will urgently put in place detailed plans with the Executive, which does include the physical posts at ports of entry”.

Northern Ireland is set to continue to follow EU single market rules on agricultural and manufactured goods after Brexit, while the rest of the UK will stop following these rules at the end of 2020.

“They have signalled that in order to implement the protocol for January 1 in a way that we all want which is of course is to avoid disruption to trade,” Mr Kearney told the committee.

“Delivery on that infrastructure needs to start as soon as possible, and the British government has indicated that it will provide advice on the requirements and the funding to put that in place.”

For further reading BreakingNews reports here.

Published in Ports & Shipping

Tagged under

About The Author

Jehan Ashmore

Email The Author

Jehan Ashmore is a marine correspondent, researcher and photographer, specialising in Irish ports, shipping and the ferry sector serving the UK and directly to mainland Europe. Jehan also occasionally writes a column, 'Maritime' Dalkey for the (Dalkey Community Council Newsletter) in addition to contributing to UK marine periodicals.

We've got a favour to ask

More people are reading Afloat.ie than ever thanks to the power of the internet but we're in stormy seas because advertising revenues across the media are falling fast. Unlike many news sites, we haven’t put up a paywall because we want to keep our marine journalism open.

Afloat.ie is Ireland's only full–time marine journalism team and it takes time, money and hard work to produce our content.

So you can see why we need to ask for your help.

If everyone chipped in, we can enhance our coverage and our future would be more secure. You can help us through a small donation. Thank you.