restart swanse cork

[Steven]

Under International rules once the UK leaves the EU, if no trade deal is agreed then duty free sales are permitted once an international frontier is crossed irrespective of who it inconveniences, we will have to see what kind of final Brexit settlement is reached before being able to see what the status of duty free will be (for example right now if there were a no deal scenario a Carlingford Lough ferry would qualify for duty free sales as it crosses an international frontier as ridiculous as that sounds).
I can not see anyone investing in any Ireland - UK service until the final details of Brexit are known, and we are a long way from that yet.
Assuming all goes well with Brexit there is demand for a Cork to UK service, however Swansea is dead as a ferry port, there are a small number of ships in the Blue Star and Hellenic fleets that are suitable for the route but the business case for those ships is questionable at best, essentially Swansea port and its infrastructure belongs to a different era and they just dont build ships like those any more.
The only realistic options for a new UK service out of Cork are direct to the Bristol freight hub with something like a Visentini to undermine the Rosslare operators for unaccompanied freight units (potential new role for MV Connemara when its Brittany Ferries charter is up?) but as a passenger service it would be a long and basic service that I am not sure would attract many passengers.
Other than that if one had REALLY deep pockets you could go toe to toe with Irish Ferries on a Cork - Pembroke service, but you would want a fast ship to enable a viable turnaround time and nerves of steel to go with those deep pockets to take on Irish Ferries in such a direct way.
For the moment the best bet is to watch how fast Cork develops when the city boundary is massively extended next year and what effect that has on Rosslare operations in terms of the pulling power of the Port of Cork once the new Brittany Ferries schedule is bedded in.

A lot of assumptions are being made about duty free.  Particularly one where anyone but people looking for some cheap fags and booze even wants a return to duty free!  Another assumption being made is that the country of entry won't impose duty on goods which have been purchased "duty free", something they are perfectly entitled to do and which there is a precedent for.  In the increasingly unlikely event of a "no-deal" Brexit occurring I personally don't see the EU allowing the U.K. to get one over on them and profit by selling cheap goods to their citizens so said citizens can avoid paying tax to EU states on said goods.  The customs posts will need to be in place anyway in such a scenario (one which could have extremely serious implications for both the U.K. and Ireland in any case - I think we will all have more to worry about than duty free in such a scenario).

As I've said before, it will be short sea routes that would benefit from any return to duty free anyway rather than longer routes such as Cork to wherever.  All of this of course would depend on the U.K. departure agreement (if it even happens) allowing for a return to duty free in any case, rather than the system of retrospectively claiming back taxes for goods exported being in place instead.  If a return to duty free did happen, and taxes weren't applied retrospectively at the port of entry, quotas would apply as they do for places like Aland and the Canary Islands anyway.