Statistics of Port Traffic Quarter 4 and Year 2025

Coverage

This release contains the results of a quarterly analysis of activity at the main Irish ports. The data is compiled from returns made by State Companies, local authorities and a number of other harbours.

Inclusion of Greenore Port Q1 2025:

Greenore Port Co Louth has been added as a main statistical port from Q1 2025 in line with European methodological guidelines. It joins Bantry Bay, Cork, Drogheda, Dublin, Rosslare, Shannon Foynes, and Waterford, and increases the total number of main statistical ports in Ireland from seven to eight.  This is the first time the number of statistical ports in Ireland has increased since this series began in Q1 2017.

To be classified as a main statistical port, a port must, for three consecutive years, either:

• Handle 1,000,000 tonnes of goods or more
• Handle 200,000 passengers or more.

Greenore satisfies the first of these criteria and therefore is included as a main statistical port.  Users should be advised that this affects comparability as the data in this release is now based on all eight ports

The tonnes of goods handled by the main statistical ports in Q4 2025 increased by 11% from Q4 2024. However, when excluding Greenore and comparing the same seven main statistical ports (Bantry Bay, Cork, Drogheda, Dublin, Rosslare, Shannon Foynes, and Waterford) between Q4 2024 and Q4 2025, this increase was 8%.

Please see the revised tables at the bottom of this section Table 8, Table 9, and Table 10 that highlight the impact of the addition of Greenore.

Quarterly and Annual Data:

From Q1 2025 data are received on a quarterly basis from the following eight main statistical ports, Bantry Bay, Cork, Drogheda, Dublin, Greenore, Rosslare, Shannon Foynes and Waterford.

Annual data is supplied by the smaller ports as follows, Arklow, Castletownbere, Dundalk, Dun Laoghaire, Galway, Killybegs, Kilrush, Kinsale, New Ross, Sligo, Tralee, Wicklow and Youghal.

This is a full breakdown of all ports.

Local authorities:

• Arklow Harbour - Wicklow County Council
• Kilrush Town Council (maintenance of Cappa Pier) - Clare County Council
• Kinsale Harbour - Cork County Council
• Sligo Harbour - Sligo County Council
• Tralee and Fenit Pier and Harbour - Kerry County Council
• Youghal Town Council - Cork County Council
• Dun Laoghaire Harbour - Dun Laoghaire Rathdown County Council
• Galway Port - Galway County Council
• Wicklow port - Wicklow County Council
• New Ross Port Company - Wexford County Council

State Companies:

• Drogheda Port Company
• Dublin Port Company
• Dundalk Port Company - Dublin Port Company
• Port of Cork Company
• Port of Waterford Company
• Shannon Foynes Port Company
• Bantry Bay Harbour - Port of Cork Company

Other harbours:

• Castletownbere Fishery Harbour Centre - Department of Agriculture
• Greenore Port - Carlingford Lough Shipping Agency
• Killybegs Fishery Harbour Centre - Department of Agriculture 
• Rosslare Europort - Irish Rail

As the figures have been rounded independently there may be slight discrepancies between the sum of the constituent items and the totals shown. A ‘0’ indicates a value that has been rounded to zero, whereas a ‘..’ indicates no activity.

Definitions

Category of Goods:

• Liquid bulk - A type of bulk cargo that consists of liquid items, such as petroleum, water, or liquid natural gas.
• Dry bulk - Any material, other than a liquid or gas, that is transported in a loose form without any packaging.
• Lift-on lift-off - Containerised cargo typically lifted on and off vessels by specially designed cranes and derricks (usually abbreviated as LoLo).
• Roll-on roll-off - Wheeled cargo units either driven or pulled aboard vessels via vessel ramps (usually abbreviated as RoRo).
• Break bulk & other goods – General cargo that must be loaded individually onto vessels, and not in intermodal containers or in bulk as with oil or grain.

Tonnage of Goods:

This includes the weight of immediate packaging material but excludes, in the case of containerised traffic, the weight of containers. The tonnage of goods for roll-on/roll-off traffic may be based on estimated coefficients for certain vehicle categories. The export of live cattle on the hoof is excluded from the tonnage of goods in this release.

Region of Trade:

• Coastal - Trade between Irish ports excluding Northern Ireland.
• Great Britain & Northern Ireland - Includes Isle of Man and other British crown dependencies.
• EU - Trade with ports in European countries that are members of the EU.
• Non-EU - Trade with ports in European countries that are not members of the EU. This also includes Turkey, Russia, and countries in the Balkans. It does not include Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
• Other Ports - Trade with ports in non-European countries.

Gross Tonnage of Vessels:

The measure of the overall size of a ship determined in accordance with the provisions of the International Convention on Tonnage Measurement of Ships, 1969.

Vessel types:

Only the activity of trading vessels, car ferries and other passenger vessels is covered in the series. Only vessels of at least 100 gross tonnes are included. The following vessels are excluded:

• Fish-catching vessels
• Fish-processing vessels
• Vessels for drilling and exploration (exception: Killybegs)
• Tugs
• Pusher craft
• Research and survey vessels
• Dredgers
• Naval vessels
• Vessels used solely for non-commercial purposes
• Vessels entering the ports for shelter

Vessel types are classified according to the International Classification of Ship Types (ICST-COM). Cruise liners are included where passengers embark or disembark in port.

The ship categories included under each vessel type are outlined below:

Liquid bulk vessels:

• Oil tanker
• Chemical tanker
• Liquid gas tanker
• Tanker barge
• Other tanker

Dry bulk vessels:

• Bulk/oil carrier
• Bulk carrier

Container vessels:

• Full container

Specialised vessels:

• Barge carrier
• Chemical carrier
• Irradiated fuel carrier
• Livestock carrier
• Vehicle carrier
• Other specialised carrier

General cargo vessels:

• Reefer
• Ro-Ro passenger
• Ro-Ro container
• Other Ro-Ro container
• Combination carrier general cargo/passenger
• Combination carrier general cargo/container
• Single decker
• Multi-decker

Passenger vessels:

• Cruise liners
• Other passenger only vessels