A Pembrokeshire ferry has been taken off her normal run, in order to help deal with an increase in demand elsewhere, caused by the suspension of P&O ferry services.

The Stena Europe, which usually sails between Fishguard and Rosslare has been taken off the route and is currently sailing between Holyhead and Dublin.

Stena has said that there will be no ferry sailing out of Fishguard until April 12.

Stena confirmed that the Europe was being used to replace another vessel that was covering the Belfast to Cairnryan route, which was currently using two ferries.

P&O services have been reduced after the company sacked nearly 800 workers last month.

A spokesperson for Stena said that the current suspension on P&O services has meant that Stena is experiencing high demand on its routes into Belfast.

“To assist the Northern Ireland economy during the current difficulties we have redeployed an additional vessel onto the Belfast to Cairnryan, Scotland, route, to provide increased capacity there to help to ensure vital supplies continue to flow unimpeded into the region,” said the spokesperson.

“As a result, the Stena Europe was moved to the Holyhead to Dublin route to cover for vessel moved to Belfast-Cairnryan.

“Unfortunately, this situation has occurred during our annual dry-docking maintenance period which means that temporarily there will be no services on our Fishguard to Rosslare route, until April 12.”