Rosslare Europort in focus

Iarnrod Eireann recently initiated a £6.2 million upgrade at Rosslare Europort. Newly appointed general manager Michael Murphy previewed the upgrade with John Loughran.

Michael Murphy has a long and distinguished career with Iarnrod Eireann. Before his recent appointment as general manager of Rosslare Europort, he held the position of manager with DART Commuter.

A lover of all things nautical, his Rosslare appointment was a dream move from a professional and private perspective. He revealed: “Rosslare Europort is stand-alone commercial entity within Iarnrod Eireann and CIE. It is a profitable and progressive business. Privately I am very much into sailing, so the position appealed to me on all fronts.”

Iarnrod Eireann’s association with Rosslare Europort stretches back more than 100 years through the Rosslare and Fishguard Harbours and Railways Company. “In 1898 they envisaged running a steamer service from Fishguard to Rosslare, connecting to Cork by rail. In those days it wasn’t unusual for a railway to be involved in running a port.”

He continued: “Iarnrod Eireann is the descendent of that company in Rosslare, while Stena is the port authority in Fishguard.”
Michael is well versed in the historical connections between Iarnrod Eireann’s ancestors and the port. He is equally in tune with the challenges of running a modern and vibrant gateway port. “Rosslare Europort is a profitable business. My focus of attention is to keep that going and create a surplus every year and invest that in the infrastructure of the port.”

To that end Rosslare Europort recently embarked on a £6.2 million capital investment at the port, that will see significant improvements at Piers One and Two. Upgrading of mooring facilities, structural improvements to the piers and the relocation of the Export Freight Building are all in the offing.

“Following on from that we need to spend another £10 million on our breakwater and one of our link spans. The demand for capital expenditure within the port is continuous. Over the past 12 years we have invested about £40 million,” he elaborated.

In returning annual profits Rosslare Europort has a strong customer focus. “Our main customers are the shipping companies that operate out of the port. We make our profit through offering high levels of shore based services and facilities to Stena Line, Irish Ferries, P&O European Ferries and Euroshipping,” he commented.
Rosslare Europort as a stand-alone commercial entity competes for business with all of Ireland’s commercial ports. In that respect it has a number of strong selling propositions.

“We are the second biggest ro/ro port in the Republic behind Dublin. We are also one of the biggest ports for the importation of new cars. We offer up to 10 sailings to Britain everyday and we have a commercial linkage with five strategic ports namely Fishguard, Prembroke, Cherbourg, Le Harve and Roscoff.”

Rosslare Europort’s biggest single attraction to the ferry companies is its location. “A ship can go at full speed from the breakwater in Rosslare to the breakwater at Fishguard. Rosslare is directly on the shipping route. That allows easy access to the port in all weathers and cuts down on transit times.”

The port’s storage facilities are another attraction. “We can cater for 200 trailers for short-stay storage. We could double that number in a matter of days if we needed to. We also have space for 3,000 cars, which is another important selling point,” Michael elaborated.

Its all-inclusive facilities are also a strong selling feature. Michael explained: “We provide the check-in facilities for some of the ferry companies. We also provide the full agency service for another operator. If a shipping company wants to use Rosslare we can provide a wide range of services.”

The company’s friendly and efficient staff are also another key asset, according to Michael. “We have a fantastic workforce on the ground. They are fully committed to Rosslare Europort and its customers. They are steeped in the tradition of the port. They are very flexible and very responsive, which is most important.”

Rosslare Europort’s ongoing success translates into more than 2,300 shipping movements every year; 1.24 million passengers; 319,000 tourist cars; 5,000 coach movements; 107,000 ro/ro freight movements and 60,000 new car movements. It all makes impressive reading.

In supplying the ferry companies with imperiously high levels of service, Rosslare Europort paves the way, for these companies to offer competitive packages to their customers. “Much of what we do here is driven by the freight forwarding and haulage industries. They look for the routes, sailing times and the rates. Then they look at the accessibility of the port,” he remarked.

He added: “If the freight forwarders and the truckers didn’t choose Rosslare Europort, none of us would be in business. Our staff interface on a daily basis with the truckers. They are key to our business and we acknowledge that fact. This year for example, we are installing a truck wash in the port. Just recently our bar and restaurant facilities reopened, which will be good for all our customers, including truckers.”

In that light Michael is looking forward to the day when the N25 is finally upgraded. “That is a very important issue for us. It is great to see the Gorey bypass getting the go ahead. In tandem with the we would like to see the N25 upgraded, but that is a few years away yet. I would hope it would be sooner rather than later,” he noted.

Down the line Michael envisages that some of the ferry companies will open up direct routes to northern Spain. “With road tolls, traffic congestion and environmental laws regarding noise and emissions the logical thing is to develop shipping routes out of Northern Spain directly to Ireland. A t present those routes are going into the UK ports.”

He continued: “I would be encouraging the shipping companies to look at Northern Spain. We are the nearest port to the continent, so where better to do it than Rosslare Europort? In that scenario there are four players: the port of departure, the port of arrival, the shipping company and the trucker. We would do our part to stimulate new business. We could accommodate that sort of expansion.”

Similarly, Rosslare Europort will be looking at growing the business on existing routes. “In the future (with the shipping companies) we would be looking at winning more markets share for Rosslare Europort,” he added.

Rosslare Europort’s ability to turn vessels round in double-quick time means there is plenty of untapped capacity. “We have four berths available to us. We have lots of capacity in the middle of the day and we would be delighted to welcome in a new operator or an existing operator extending its services,” he concluded.