Figures released from the Central Statistics Office reveal that Irish ports handled 55.1 million tonnes of goods last year, an increase of 3.3% on the previous year.

Total goods forwarded from Irish ports, RTE News reports, amounted to 18 million tonnes, a slight increase of 0.8% when compared with the previous year.

A total of 37.1 million tonnes of goods were received in 2018, an annual increase of 4.5%.

The CSO noted that Dublin port accounted for 59.3% of all vessel arrivals in Irish ports and 47.8% of the total tonnage of goods handled in 2018.

The routes between Dublin and three UK ports - Holyhead, Liverpool and Milford Haven were the busiest routes for inward movement of goods last year.

More on Irish ports can be read here.