Written Statement: Welsh Government Statement Irish Sea Taskforce recommendations publication

The Task Force was established to address the resilience of Welsh, Irish Sea Ports following incidents at Holyhead Port and the observation of more frequent port closures due to bad weather as climate change takes effect. Discussions over the past 12 months within the Irish Sea Taskforce has reinforced the importance of Holyhead and our other Irish Sea facing ports to communities in Wales and Ireland and beyond, and our shared interest and responsibility, both now and in the future, to make sure they thrive and grow. Our proximity and common maritime story bind us together through economic and trading ties, with significant levels of export, investment and tourism between us.

The taskforce consisted of a core group, including among others, representatives from the Government of Ireland, the UK government, the Scottish Government, the Northern Ireland Executive, local authorities, port and ferry operators, and representatives of the logistics sector. We also drew on specific sectoral expertise during thematic meetings of the Taskforce. 

I would like to extend my thanks to all those who have contributed over the past 12 months and I’m pleased to be able to publish our recommendations. The beginning of this month saw us drawing on our experiences and initiating some of the learnings of the taskforce sessions following the brief closure of Holyhead Port but not having to stand the taskforce up formally.

Many of these recommendations will be included as part of a wider list of priorities contained within the ports and maritime, freight and logistics plan which we have committed to publish before the end of Government term. The published plan will enable the next Government to clearly see what the priorities of the Irish Sea Taskforce and the sector are and be able to move them forward as they see fit.  As part of that work, we have committed to establish a freight council. We see the Welsh Logistics Council as a natural follow on from this taskforce. The Council remit is likely to be wide ranging therefore flexibility is key. For example, we hope to draw on the Council’s specific sectoral expertise once formed to monitor the progress of the recommendations agreed by the Irish Sea task force as part of their remit to consider ports, freight and logistics identified priorities in the published plan.

I have also approved contracted services to survey truck stop facilities as a priority action in support of the plan which will be published next year. This will support and inform the recommendations which includes resilience work on the A55, A494 and M4 corridors, progressing work on Menai Crossings resilience and an update on potential A55 improvements and work with regional transport partners to understand what further improvements could be made to A40/A477.  We will also look at refining and improving stacking arrangements in the event of issues at ports and finally considering interim solutions to the welfare needs of drivers who are stranded or in stack arrangements because of port closures and the delivery of said welfare provision.