5. What discussions has the Counsel General had with the Minister for the Economy, Transport and North Wales regarding the impact of the expansion of direct shipping routes from Ireland to the EU on the Welsh economy? OQ56168

Well, until December, Welsh ports were the easiest route for traffic between Ireland and mainland Europe. The new regulatory barriers resulting from the UK Government's deal with the European Union have changed that, and we are pressing the UK Government to improve transit procedures to restore the competitive advantage of Welsh ports.

I welcome, genuinely, that constructive engagement by the Minister with UK counterparts, but, you know, I've got to call a spade a spade here. Minister, those people who said that we would have, after EU withdrawal, frictionless trade that would allow these land routes across the UK to continue were either too daft to realise what they were saying to the public in Wales, and across Britain, or they were outright telling porky pies. And, in fact, the UK bureaucracy that we currently have is exactly what Boris Johnson railed against previously, when he pointed his arrows at the European Union. So, I wonder, Minister, I see commercial operators out of Ireland now espousing the benefits of long-term diversion, away from the land link across the UK, and by going direct from Ireland to the EU. Will he push UK Ministers to redress the damage that they have done and to make sure that this is as temporary as possible and that they get this trade going back through our ports in Wales?

Well, that is a top priority for us as a Government. These barriers, if you like, to trade and to transit weren't just foreseeable, they were foreseen. Now, what we want to make sure is that the speed and convenience of routes through Wales will start to attract hauliers back as soon as possible, and we are certainly pressing the UK Government, in the way that he suggests, to do everything possible to help traders navigate this new border and then to limit the economic impact that it's having. And the Minister for the economy, as you will have heard in earlier exchanges in the Chamber today, has written to the Secretary of State for Transport yesterday to highlight our concerns most recently. Obviously, we're particularly worried about the fact that those routes are costlier and take longer, and that tells us, of course, that the land bridge remains the best option, effectively. What we want to do is make sure that we are working with other Governments to persuade the hauliers of that, and that involves UK Government doing everything it can to minimise the practical implications of those checks and so on at the border.

Those whose jobs depend on the port of Holyhead will pay the price if changing trading patterns leads to a loss of trade permanently, shifting to direct passage. Whilst December stockpiling may be a part of the reasons for what's happened, the pandemic also, the elephant on that near-empty vehicle deck is the huge increase in trade on those direct routes. I think trade through Rosslare is up some 500 per cent. And, yes, it's longer, but there's no bureaucracy going that way, and whilst the Holyhead route has traditionally been cheaper as well as being more convenient, it doesn't take a genius to work out what a big increase in direct traffic is likely to mean for prices on those direct routes either. Now, I'm grateful for being copied into that letter that's been mentioned, from the economy Minister to UK Government, calling for support, both financial and otherwise, to deal with those significant new non-tariff barriers. But will the Minister update us on how Welsh Government can assist further now, including through establishing the kind of long-term border infrastructure we need to help trade flow freely and which UK Government have failed to deliver?

Well, what we are doing is very practical, really, in terms of working with the other two Governments and bringing those together. We've been absolutely at the forefront, really, of discussions, both with the UK Government and the Irish Government, as I mentioned earlier, but also with local authorities, including his own, and port stakeholders in relation to these matters, to make sure that we have the latest intelligence of what is happening, as far as possible, in real time to freight. We have seen some action on some of the issues that we've been highlighting, including some of the short-term easements, effectively, that the Irish Government have put in place in relation to the pre-boarding notification procedures, and, as I mentioned in passing earlier, some of those very practical things around webinars and so on.

In relation to the infrastructure that he speaks about, the Welsh Government's new responsibilities, effectively, start from the beginning of July, both in Holyhead and in the south-west, but we are working with HMRC and the UK Government to identify the best locations as near as possible to the port for that infrastructure to be placed. We want it to be as near as possible to the port, for reasons that I think are obvious, and there are a small number of options for us, which we are now homing in on. What I would say to him, though, is that it's almost impossible to imagine circumstances where that could be delivered now by 1 July, given the time we lost last year in the UK Government properly engaging us. So, we are now pressing the UK Government for an understanding of what contingency measures can be put in place so that Holyhead and other ports in Wales, and, indeed, across the UK, are able to do this in an orderly fashion, given the time we lost last year.