Rosslare Europort

Rosslare Europort
Rosslare Europort
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Location
Country	Ireland
Coordinates	52°15′20″N 6°20′04″W / 52.25556°N 6.33444°W / 52.25556; -6.33444
UN/LOCODE	IEROS[1]
Details
Operated by	Iarnród Éireann
Type of harbour	coastal breakwater port
No. of berths	5[2]
Draft depth	7.2 m.[3]
General Manager[3]	Glenn Carr[3]
Statistics
Website Official website

Rosslare Europort (Irish: Europort Ros Láir) is a modern seaport located at Rosslare Harbour in County Wexford, Ireland, near the southeasternmost point of the island of Ireland. The port is the primary Irish port serving the European Continent with 36 direct services to the Continent weekly.^[4] It handles passenger and freight ferries to and from Cherbourg, Dunkirk, St Malo and Roscoff, in France, Bilbao in Spain and Fishguard and Pembroke Dock in the United Kingdom. Since July 2022, a new freight route between Rosslare and Zeebrugge, Belgium was introduced by Finnlines (Grimaldi Group) for a twice weekly ro-ro service between the two ports.

As a result of Brexit, the port is expanding rapidly, providing new or increased direct sailings with extra capacity from Ireland to mainland Europe.^[5] The direct routes between Ireland and the continent allow freight transport firms to bypass the UK land bridge, in case there is severe congestion at British ports.^[6]

The port, formerly called Rosslare Harbour, is operated by Iarnród Éireann, Ireland's national railway operator. Wexford politicians Verona Murphy and James Browne maintain that if Rosslare is to take advantage of its new market opportunities and undergo radical expansion to handle container traffic, this will require large-scale investment.^[7][8][9]

Rosslare Europort has direct sailings into Cherbourg, Dunkirk, St Malo/Roscoff and Bilbao ports.^[5][10] As a result of new routes or increased frequency and capacity on existing routes, there are 36 direct services (freight and passenger) to and from Rosslare to continental Europe weekly, a six-fold increase on the 3 weekly sailings to mainland Europe in 2019.^[11][12] The Dunkirk route is a key selling point as it is three hours from Paris and just 20 minutes from the Belgian border. According to Glenn Carr, Europort General Manager, the Dunkirk route is quicker than using the British landbridge taking account of the paperwork and customs checks caused by Brexit.^{[citation needed]}