Irish Ferries is an Irish ferry and transport company that operates passenger and freight services on routes between Ireland, Britain and Continental Europe, including Dublin Port–Holyhead; Rosslare Europort to Pembroke as well as Dublin Port-Cherbourg in France. The company is a division of the Irish Continental Group (ICG) which trades on the Irish Stock Exchange and the London Stock Exchange. ICG also owns the Eucon container line which operates vessels on routes operating between Ireland and the continent. Irish Ferries' flagship, MV Ulysses, is currently the largest ROPAX ferry operating on the Irish Sea and when launched in 2001 was the world's largest car ferry in terms of car-carrying capacity. Other ships in the fleet include , MV W.B. Yeats and the fast ferry Dublin Swift (preceded by , which operated until 2018). The company also charters in a ro-pax vessel, . The company used to charter which was sold to Interisland Line, and Pride of Bilbao which was sold to St. Peter Line in 2013 and then renamed Princess Anastasia. History Irish Continental Line was formed in 1973 as a joint venture between Irish Shipping, Fearnley & Eger and Swedish company Lion Ferry. It originally operated on the Rosslare–Le Havre route with the 547 berth, 210 car ferry Saint Patrick. When Irish Shipping went into liquidation in 1984, Irish Continental Line was sold off in a management buyout and emerged as Irish Continental Group. In 1992, ICG took over the British and Irish Steam Packet Company Limited, a nationalised company which traded under the name B&I Line and operated ferry services between Dublin and Holyhead and between Rosslare and Pembroke Dock. In 2005, Irish Ferries replaced all its workers with foreign agency labour that was cheaper than that of its rivals, such as P&O Ferries, Stena Line and DFDS, thereby undercutting their prices. Its competitive practice, as well as the use of security personnel to carry out the replacement of its crewmembers, were described by many in the industry as a "blueprint" for P&O's 2022 sacking of hundreds of its seafarers. Investment As part of its offer to buy B&I Line, management at ICG undertook to invest in replacing what was an ageing fleet. Over the following decade, a programme of fleet renewal was undertaken involving investment of €500 million to create what was described as the most modern ferry fleet in western Europe (1). New vessels were built