Irish Continental says repairs to Dublin-Holyhead ferry taking longer

Irish Continental Group said on Monday that the Ulysses, operated by its subsidiary Irish Ferries on the Dublin-to-Holyhead route, reported technical difficulties with its starboard controllable pitch propeller on 24 June.

The London-listed firm said the vessel entered drydock in Belfast on 28 June, with the investigation and repairs to the vessel initially expected to take no longer than five days, allowing her to resume service on 4 July.

“We have now been informed by service engineers that the issue is more serious than originally anticipated and they expect the vessel will be out of service for a further period of one to two weeks,” the board said in its statement.

In advance of her return to service, Irish Continental said it would adjust the schedules of its other vessels to minimise the disruption to customers as much as possible.

The Dublin-to-Holyhead route would operate with the Epsilon on the Ulysses schedule, alongside the Dublin Swift which would operate additional evening sailings.

“Irish Ferries would like to apologise to all our passenger and freight customers for this technical disruption.

“Despite our best efforts we can find no replacement tonnage in what is now the peak tourism season,” the board explained.

It noted it was the first major disruption on the Ulysses since her deployment on the route in 2001.