Ireland: Gerard Kiernan appointed new IIFA President
Sales Manager sees both challenges and opportunities in Ireland's growing trade volumes.
The Irish International Freight Association (IIFA) has a new President: Gerard Kiernan, National Sales Manager at a. hartrodt (Ireland) in Dublin, was elected in mid-June to lead the IIFA for a two-year term. Founded in 1962, the association has 169 member companies with more than 3,000 employees, which handle over 90 percent of Ireland’s foreign trade. Gerard Kiernan notes that Dublin's port and airport cargo infrastructure is struggling to keep pace with the “significant increase in volume” driven by Ireland's strong economic growth. This is a challenge he sees alongside real opportunities, he plans to raise with policymakers.
Speed up planning permission processes
“Since 2019, throughput at Dublin Port has increased by 25 percent to approximately 1 million TEU in the current year,” says Gerard Kiernan. Capacity expansion works are under way but take time, and at Dublin Airport, despite similar volume growth, meaningful works to improve freight facilities have yet to begin. Gerard Kiernan sees the time-consuming planning permission process as a key hurdle, and wants to standardize the differing operating hours and IT systems across Dublin Port's seven terminals, which create extra work for customers such as a. hartrodt.
Building on a. hartrodt's strengths in Ireland
Alongside these challenges, Ireland's economy grew faster than any other in the EU in the second quarter of 2026, up 3.9 percent against an EU average of 0.5 percent. a. hartrodt's Dublin team serves Ireland's four key trading blocs: significant volumes of beverages and food to the United States, dedicated equipment and waste flows to the European Union, building and recycling materials with Great Britain, and manufactured goods to the rest of the world. For Gerard Kiernan, freight forwarding remains above all a “people's industry” – the Dublin team's daily contact with customers, connecting first with people, then trucks, planes, ships and trains, underpins this growth and is a source of pride as he takes on the presidency.