An Post delivered 350,000 parcels to customers on Saturday, the postal service has said.
4,000 of their delivery routes were fully operational on Saturday.
On Monday, they said, they will deliver a further 350,000 parcels, alongside hundreds of thousands of Christmas cards.
The postal company said it will provide daily updates to customers about their deliveries.
There has been huge concern for companies and postal services as the backlog of shipping poses a big challenge in the run-up to Christmas following the damages caused at Holyhead during Storm Darragh.
The port is expected to remain closed until at least Thursday, December 19th.
An Post said that additional ferry capacity has been created across all other ferry lanes into Ireland and that UK and EU to Ireland shipping routes have deployed larger vessels and additional sailings have been added to the schedule.
However, there is still some shortfall on what freight capacity would have been available into Ireland from Holyhead which had six sailings every 24 hours, An Post said, although the alternative ports require great driving time, thus requiring more transit time.
The Department of Transport announced on Saturday that a temporary relaxation of rules around drivers’ hours had been granted for two weeks, from December 14th until December 27th, to allow truck drivers to compliantly operate for more hours.
The last time this happened was during the Covid-19 pandemic.
An Post also said they have received almost all outstanding items impacted by the Storm Darragh/Holyhead outage.
All but 16,000 of the 500,000 affected parcels have been received and are now in transit to the postal service.
They are also securing air freight capacity to get parcels and mail that would have traditionally shipped via Holyhead moved out of Ireland to meet their latest posting date promises.
All parcels received into An Post hubs are being processed and delivered immediately, and the service said they “will continue to support all our Irish and international ecommerce customers to find delivery solutions.
“These large hubs have the latest technology, equipment and additional Christmas staff to meet this challenge and to deal with parcels arriving by air, as well as large volumes of domestic parcels being posted by Irish brands and personal customers.”
All parcels received into An Post hubs by December 21st will be delivered in time for Christmas, they added.
Customers who are still awaiting delivery of any items ordered before Storm Darragh by Monday evening should contact the seller for an update.
Dispatch times from the UK may take longer than usual, so if planning to order from UK retailers – even though many have secured working routes to Ireland - check with them regarding their delivery dates for Ireland.
An Post have advised customers to shop local with Irish e-tailers, and to buy Irish.
Minister of State at the Department of Transport James Lawless is to meet with Ken Skates MS, Cabinet Secretary for Transport and North Wales on Sunday to help clear the trade backlog following the closure of Holyhead Port.
The two are due meet at 6.30pm to explore all possible solutions to this problem through the use of alternative Welsh ports after Holyhead’s operations were severely curtailed in the aftermath of Storm Darragh.
A meeting with Heidi Alexander MP Secretary of State for Transport for the UK is also being scheduled for next week with Transport Minister Eamon Ryan.
Both Minister Ryan and Minister Lawless will also have another meeting with logistics stakeholders tomorrow morning to address this issue, as well as separate talks with Irish Ferries and Stena Line Ferries.
Both Ministers were fully briefed by Department of Transport officials, the Irish Maritime Development Office and the National Transport Authority on Sunday morning as to how trade in goods and passenger traffic can be accommodated through alternative ports as effectively as possible in the wake of the recent damage to Holyhead Port from Storm Darragh.
