Ships could soon be turned away from Rosslare Europort

Irish Rail has warned that ships could soon have to be turned away from Rosslare Europort in Co Wexford due to capacity issues.

It comes as fuel protestors have set up a blockade at the nearby village of Kilrane, which is about 1.6km from the port.

The operators of the port, Irish Rail, has said it could soon have to turn ships back to wait on anchor out from the port or advise to go to an alternative port.

Harbour Master of Rosslare Europort Tom Curran told RTÉ News that there is a dilemma facing one of the country's busiest ports
Watch: Rosslare Europort could soon have to turn ships away, Harbour Master says
He said the port is reaching capacity with freight stuck and unable to move
Rosslare Europort operates 36 sailings each week to and from mainland Europe.

Mr Curran said it is almost at capacity and that by tomorrow afternoon there will be no more room and that he will telling ferry operators with units with freight to the port that they cannot land.

A spokesperson for Irish Rail said the situation could come to a head late tomorrow night or early on Monday morning.

They said: "Protesters have set up a blockade at Kilrane, which is about a mile (1.6lm) from the port.

This is in place since early Thursday morning.

"Only passenger traffic is currently being permitted to pass through.

"Yesterday, accompanied pharmaceutical freight was permitted through, but that has now stopped also since yesterday afternoon.

"There is currently about a mile of a tail back of trucks.

"We will shortly be facing challenges as we have two ships coming in tomorrow/early Monday morning and once they off-load we will have no further capacity.

"We will then have to turn ships back to wait on anchor out from the port or advise to go to an alternative port."
"Once the blockades are lifted, it will take some time to get the port cleared before we can take any more freight in and the port may need to put restrictions on capacity during this time," the spokesperson added.