Roy Beggs
Roy Beggs said:
“In brutally sacking their workforce and ceasing to provide a strategic ferry service to Northern Ireland and a service to their customers, P&O Ferries’ Directors have shown no regard for their staff, customers and the importance of the North Channel route to the Northern Ireland economy.
“Shockingly it has now been indicated that the P&O Ferries service is not planned to resume before 12 April, almost a month since the service ceased.
“We have been fortunate that other ferry capacity has been available across the Irish Sea. Undoubtedly there will have been additional rerouting costs to our hauliers and businesses. But with customers going elsewhere and the reputational damage to P&O, will P&O Irish Sea Ferries be able to get customers to return?
“Again I say, it is the directors who took the brutal, costly decision to sack all staff, with redundancy payments north of £36m and ongoing daily losses, that should now be shown the door.”
ENDS
Notes to Editors:
WRITTEN QUESTION FROM LORD EMPEY
Baroness Vere of Norbiton, the Department for Transport, has provided the following answer to your written parliamentary question (HL7083):
Question (LORD EMPEY):
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the implications for connectivity within the UK of P&O Ferries’ decision to cease its ferry operations from Larne to Cairnryan. (HL7083)
Tabled on: 18 March 2022
Answer:
Baroness Vere of Norbiton:
Officials have been working at pace to ensure vital capacity is secured. I am grateful to other ferry companies that have stepped up to provide the ferry capacity that has been temporarily – and at no notice – taken out of the market by P&O Ferries. We have assurances that DFDS, Irish Ferries (with eight vessels between them) have sufficient capacity to accommodate both freight and passenger vehicles in the coming days, including on the Larne to Cairnryan route, albeit with some delays.
Date and time of answer: 01 Apr 2022 at 10:03.
https://questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-questions/detail/2022-03-18/hl7083
