Rosslare Europort's Port Authority, Iarnród Éireann, has initiated a non-statutory consultation regarding the establishment of an Offshore Renewable Energy (ORE) Hub at Rosslare Europort.

With Ireland's expansive sea area of 490,000 sq km, the country is poised to become a key player in offshore renewable energy. Rosslare Europort, strategically located within 50 to 100 nautical miles of several planned offshore wind developments in the Irish and Celtic seas, is primed to provide crucial port access and infrastructure for various stages of offshore wind projects. The proposed plans for the ORE Hub include expanding the existing site and upgrading port infrastructure to support the construction and operation of offshore wind farms.

Key features of the expansion encompass land reclamation, new berths for ORE vessels, dredging of an approach channel, and the establishment of Operations & Maintenance (O&M) facilities, among others. Following collaboration with ORE experts and advisors, initial design concepts have been developed and presented to the public and stakeholders.

The project team has completed further refinements to the initial designs, which will be shared with stakeholders during the ongoing public consultation period. Upon conclusion of the consultation, the project design will be finalised, with a planning application anticipated to be submitted to An Bord Pleanála in late 2024.

Pending planning approval and funding, construction is projected to commence in late 2025 or early 2026. The establishment of the ORE Hub at Rosslare Europort is expected to create diverse employment opportunities and foster sustainable and inclusive economic growth for the region, offering a promising outlook for the future of offshore renewable energy in Ireland.

The proposed works will include:

• Circa 20 hectares of land reclamation
• A new lift berth to accommodate ORE vessels
• A second berth capable of handling Roll-On Roll-Off activities and Load-On Load-Off of components
• Dredging of an approach channel
• A new ‘small boat’ harbour with enhanced access
• Operations & Maintenance (O&M) facilities to include warehousing, offices and parking
• Potential future accommodation of a rail spur connection to site
• New access road to small boat harbour and site access to the ORE facility

Rosslare Europort has been working with specialist ORE experts and advisors on feasibility and concept designs. Having collated various preliminary data, the project team developed initial design concepts, which were presented to the public and various stakeholders in December 2023. Further improvements to the initial designs have been completed and will be presented to stakeholders during this public consultation period.

Following this period of consultation, the project design will be finalised. A planning application is expected to be lodged with An Bord Pleanála in late 2024. Subject to planning being granted and funding being allocated, it is expected that construction will commence in late 2025 / early 2026.

Rosslare Europort says it recorded further growth last year, with over 200,000 freight units passing through the port for the first time in its history.

Overall freight in the past two years has grown cumulatively by 53% with a 398% increase in continental trade, Iarnród Éireann, port authority for the Co Wexford harbour, said in a statement.

The Co Wexford port also secured a new twice-weekly direct service to Zeebrugge with Finnlines, part of the Grimaldi Group, in 2022.

It says there was a “significant return” to the passenger business, with over 550,000 people using the port. This represents a 128% increase on 2021, and just 5% behind 2019 pre-Covid levels, it says.

Rosslare Europort says it “remains Ireland's number one port for direct freight and passenger services to the EU”.

Along with 58 weekly services to and from Britain, the port now also operates over 34 services between Rosslare and Bilbao, Cherbourg, La Havre, Dunkirk and Zeebrugge.

It says it is now the only port in Europe to have “the three largest ro-ro brands operating services collectively”.

“We continue to see increased growth and demand at Rosslare Europort and our focus is on further delivering port infrastructure and services that supports Ireland’s exporters, importers, tourism and energy renewable industries,” the port’s director of commercial business units Glen Carr said.

“2022 was a tremendous year for freight at the port and we also welcomed back significant passenger numbers using Rosslare,” he said.

“ As we go through 2023 and beyond, we will see historic levels of investment in numerous projects. Not only will these reinforce Rosslare Europort’s position as Ireland’s gateway for freight and passenger traffic to Europe, but will also see the port emerge as Ireland’s national hub to support the offshore renewable wind projects planned for the Irish and Celtic Seas,” he said.

The port has investment plans, costing about 350 million euro in total.

The plans include digitalisation of systems and operations, along with new freight and passenger facilities, storage, export and import facilities, berth extension, new freight entrance, new car parking areas, lighting, security and complete resurfacing of all ground areas.

It plans an offshore renewable energy (ORE) hub development, including an ORE purpose-built quay and berth, ORE quayside storage and pre-construction / up to 50 acres in area, navigable channel dredged down to a minimum of 9 metres depth, and management control centre and management offices and facilities.

The Office of Public Works is also developing a permanent border control post within the port, and a new N25 Rosslare Europort access road is being developed by Transport Infrastructure Ireland.

An investigation into a close-quarter incident involving two passenger ferries in Rosslare Harbour, Co Wexford, is highly critical of port control and poor communication on the bridge of one of the ships.

It also highlights failure by the Government to ensure there is training for port controllers, underpinned by legislation.

The Marine Casualty Investigation Board report notes that “communication problems” led to an incoming ship’s bridge team failing to follow instructions from port, knowing that another vessel was outbound.

The incident occurred after an inbound vessel, Connemara, arrived from Bilbao in Spain early on March 16th, 2022.

It was asked by Rosslare Port Control to wait outside the harbour in the vicinity of West Holdens buoy.

An outbound vessel Stena Europe was scheduled to sail for Fishguard in Wales at 07.30 hrs.

The report says that Connemara did not follow the instructions from Rosslare Harbour Control and instead of holding position proceeded towards the breakwater.

Stena Europe was given permission to sail by Rosslare Port Control and departed its berth unaware that Connemara was approaching the breakwater.

The two vessels met each other just off the breakwater. Both vessels had to take action to avoid collision resulting in a close quarter situation where they were only 100 metres clear, the MCIB report says.

In his statement to the MCIB, the master of the inbound vessel Connemara said he was unclear of the intentions of outbound vessel.

This uncertainty is also evident from the VHF conversation at 07.28 hrs where the inbound vessel asks the outbound vessel if it is going to alter to starboard or cross ahead, the report says.

It says the inbound vessel could have avoided the situation entirely by utilising the deep water to the north of West Holdens buoy to manoeuvre while waiting for the outbound vessel to clear the channel, therefore, avoiding any possibility of a close quarter situation developing.

This is also something that could have been communicated to the inbound vessel by Rosslare Port Control, had the duty port controller noticed that the inbound vessel was not following his advice, it says.

The report says it is “evident from the VDR recording and conflicting statements received from the bridge team of Connemara that communication among the bridge team was extremely poor, leading to a situation where there was uncertainty as to who was in control of the situation”.

The report also notes that the outbound vessel was in a position to have avoided this close quarter situation.

“It is evident from its VDR recording that it was concerned about its sailing time and not being held up by the early arrival of Connemara, the report says.

The report says that Rosslare Port Control should have been able to manage this situation and to ensure that arriving and departing vessel do not have to worry about close quarter situations off the entrance to the harbour.

Arriving and departing vessels should not end up in a situation where they have to contact each other on VHF to arrange passing, it says.

It notes that the duty port controller was also engaged in other duties in addition to vessel traffic system (VTS) duties, and therefore he could not have been completely focused on the vessels manoeuvring in and off the port.

It says Rosslare’s port controller has no maritime qualifications or training and therefore cannot be expected to fully appreciate the manoeuvrability of the vessels operating in and out of the port.

A lack of training and maritime experience meant that the port controller could not have anticipated the seriousness or potential consequences of allowing a situation such as this one to develop,it says.

For a port that handles over 30 sailings per week, the qualifications and training required to be a port controller at Rosslare are “very low”, it says.

There are no maritime or VTS qualifications required and held by the port controllers, nor is there any legislation requiring such, the report says.

The report includes a number of recommendations for Stena Marine Management, for Stena Line UK, for Rosslare Harbour, and for the Minister for Transport.

The MCIB report recommends that the Minister for Transport and the Irish Maritime Administration should consider legislation to ensure that personnel working in safety-critical roles such as VTS or harbour control have suitable training and qualifications for the position.

In comments provide to the MCIB, Stena Line said it is reviewing its bridge procedures across its Irish Sea fleet, and said it “firmly refuted” the MCIB claim that adhering to scheduling took precedence over safety.

The master of Stena Europe also said that “ at no time prior to sailing did my scheduled sailing time enter my decision-making process”.

“ I have never put sailing on schedule above the safety of the vessel. As stated previously, I was unaware the MV Connemara had passed the West Holden buoy when I let go,”he stated in correspondence to the MCIB.

The harbourmaster at Rosslare Europort pointed out that “at present there is no college in Ireland that will provide V 1031 training”, and “it would be more appropriate to recommend that Rosslare Port should immediately introduce a bespoke course especially for traffic movements in Rosslare”.

Rosslare is the latest Irish port to make its pitch as a hub for offshore renewable energy.

Hot on the heels of Ros-a-Mhíl and Galway port, Rosslare Europort wants to highlight its role in the multi-million euro energy sector.

Port owner Iarnród Éireann is to host an event on Friday, April 22nd, where it will discuss its role as “Ireland’s gateway to Europe”.

It will also present its vision for the southeast and its location as an offshore renewable energy hub.

Iarnród Éireann chief executive Jim Meade and Rosslare Europort general manager Glenn Carr will welcome speakers, including director of Ireland South East Development Office, Alan Quirke and Wind Energy Ireland head of policy, Niall Goodwin.

Dr Karen Hennessy, head of the Wexford Campus of Institute of Technology Carlow, will also participate, along with Iarnród Éireann’s assistant director of new works, Ciaran Browne.

#ferries - As RTE reports here's something you don't hear everyday, especially from someone involved in the Irish transport industry.

"Brexit, we believe, will bring opportunities."

The man uttering these words is Glenn Carr, the general manager of Rosslare Europort.

It is the second busiest port in the country for 'roll on, roll off' freight. The busiest? Dublin Port. It is estimated that upwards of 85% of all road freight goes through the capital's port.

Glenn Carr is eager to point out though that Rosslare port is the closest, geographically speaking, to mainland Europe.

He says Rosslare is well positioned to provide a real alternative for the haulage industry and more trucks could potentially mean more sailings and more business.

We meet Glenn Carr just as the 4.15pm Cherbourg sailing arrived into port. Fifteen minutes later, out rolls the cargo, 56 passenger cars, and 60 freight trucks.

Last year, around 900,000 passengers and 120,000 trucks passed through, and many believe that the facility is being under-utilised.

For further reading on the south-east ferryport, click here.