Goods traffic goes up at Irish ports, but cruise ship arrivals fell in 2025

Bantry Bay bucked trend, almost doubling its cruise traffic last year

Wed, 25 Mar, 2026 - 12:12

Martin Claffey

Irish ports handled 54m tonnes of goods in 2025, up 6% on the year previous, figures released by the Central Statistics Office on Wednesday showed.

Some 25.4m tonnes of goods went through Dublin, with 9.34m tonnes going through the Port of Cork, and 9.23m tonnes through Shannon Foynes.

"Goods forwarded from Irish ports amounted to 17m tonnes in 2025, while a total of 37m tonnes of goods were received," said CSO statistician Damien Lenihan.

Ireland's main ports are Bantry Bay, Cork, Drogheda, Dublin, Rosslare, Shannon Foynes, Greenore in Co Louth, and Waterford. "When looking at the total tonnage of goods handled in the main ports by region of trade in 2025, Great Britain & Northern Ireland accounted for 17m tonnes of the total goods (32%). European Union countries accounted for almost 25m tonnes (46%) of goods handled," said Mr Lenihan.

In 2025, 11,861 vessels arrived in Irish ports compared with 11,958 in 2024. Dublin Port accounted for 6,683 (56%) vessel arrivals in Irish ports and for 25,468 (47%) of the total tonnage of goods handled in 2025.

Meanwhile cruise passenger traffic fell in 2025, from 360,273 passengers in 2024 to 332,514 passengers last year. A total of 263 cruise ships arrived in Irish ports in 2025 compared with 292 in 2024. August was the busiest month of 2025 for cruise visitors, with 79,828 passengers arriving in Ireland on cruise ships.

Cobh was the busiest port for the cruise ship industry in Ireland in 2025, with 162,678 on 91 vessels, down from 197,107 on 103 ships a year previous. Dun Laoghaire welcomed 101,003 passengers on 65 vessels, compared to 107,113 passengers on 71 vessels in 2024.

Bantry Bay bucked the trend, almost doubling its cruise traffic. The South-West stopoff welcomed 9,549 passengers on 23 cruise ships in 2025, compared to 5,049 on 11 ships a year previous.