Pet Transport UK to Ireland 2026: Paperwork, Ferries and Real Costs

Aachen and Berlin need an Animal Health Certificate, a ferry timed to the day, and a fair bit of planning. Dublin, for a British owner, mostly just needs a wormer tablet and a booked kennel space. It’s the shortest, cheapest genuinely international pet move most UK owners will ever make, and that’s exactly why people get careless with it.

Ireland stayed in the EU after Brexit. Britain didn’t. That single fact is what makes this route different from every other short hop across the Irish Sea, and it’s worth understanding properly before you assume the old rules still apply.

What actually replaced the “PETS scheme” for this route

If you’ve read older guidance, you’ll have seen references to the Pet Travel Scheme, or PETS, which let a chipped, vaccinated pet move freely between the UK and the rest of the EU on a blue EU pet passport. That scheme ended for Great Britain the moment the Brexit transition period closed on 1 January 2021. It hasn’t come back.

What replaced it, for Ireland exactly as for France or Germany, is the Animal Health Certificate (AHC). An Official Veterinarian examines your pet, confirms the microchip and rabies vaccination are in order, and issues a certificate valid for a single entry into the EU, plus onward travel within the EU for four months. It has to be issued within 10 days of travel, which is the detail that trips up more owners than anything else on this route: book the vet appointment too early and the certificate has expired by the time you sail; book too late and there’s no slot left.

One exception. If your pet was issued an EU pet passport before the end of 2020 and its rabies vaccination is still within date, DAFM (Ireland’s Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine) will still accept that document. Most pets moving now won’t have one still valid, but it’s worth checking before you pay for a certificate you don’t need.

Holyhead or Liverpool: which crossing actually gets you to Dublin?

Here’s a mix-up worth clearing up early. Liverpool’s ferry service, run by P&O, sails to Belfast, in Northern Ireland, not to Dublin. If your move is to the Republic of Ireland rather than the North, that’s the wrong boat entirely.

The direct route to Dublin is Holyhead, served by both Stena Line and Irish Ferries, with a crossing time of a little over three hours. Both operators let your pet travel in your car for no extra charge for a pet, and both offer free onboard pet kennels for foot passengers, though kennel space is limited and needs booking well ahead of your sailing, particularly around school holidays and bank holiday weekends.

Fishguard to Rosslare is the other realistic option if you’re travelling from South Wales or the West of England, with similar pet arrangements to Holyhead through Stena Line, though the crossing runs closer to four hours and lands you further from Dublin itself.

If Northern Ireland genuinely is your destination, the Liverpool-Belfast or Cairnryan-Belfast routes apply, and the paperwork is different again: Northern Ireland sits inside the Windsor Framework, which keeps it aligned with EU pet movement rules in a way Great Britain no longer is, so a pet moving there from Great Britain follows a separate set of arrangements from the one covered here.

The paperwork, in order

1. Microchip. ISO 11784/11785 standard, implanted before or on the same day as the rabies vaccination that follows it.
2. Rabies vaccination. Current, and if it’s your pet’s first ever dose, at least 21 days must pass before travel.
3. Tapeworm treatment for dogs. A praziquantel-based wormer (or an equivalent approved product), administered by a vet between 24 and 120 hours before your ferry departs, recorded on the AHC. This didn’t apply pre-Brexit and it’s the single most commonly missed step now. Cats don’t need it.
4. Animal Health Certificate. Issued by an APHA-authorised Official Veterinarian within 10 days of travel, covering microchip, vaccination and the tapeworm treatment record for dogs.

Ireland applies the tapeworm rule to dogs arriving from every country except Finland, Malta, Norway and Northern Ireland. A dog crossing from Holyhead doesn’t get an exemption just because the journey is short.

What the move actually costs

Driving and ferry, door to door, one dog or cat: roughly £400 to £900. That covers the AHC (typically £120 to £220 depending on the vet and how many pets are on one certificate), fuel, and the ferry fare itself, since the pet portion of both the Stena Line and Irish Ferries Holyhead-Dublin crossings is free. Add the tapeworm treatment, usually £20 to £40 per dog on top of a normal vet visit.

Flying instead: this is where the maths changes fast. Neither Aer Lingus nor Ryanair carries pets on this route, in the cabin or the hold, so a flown pet travels as manifest cargo through a specialist agent, typically £350 to £700 for a small-to-medium dog even on a route this short, once crate, cargo tariff and agent handling are added up. Unless you’re already flying and have no car to bring, driving is close to always the cheaper and simpler choice here.

Timeline: what to book, and when

If your pet’s rabies vaccination is already current, two to three weeks is realistic: book the vet appointment for the AHC and tapeworm treatment for roughly a week before your sailing date, and book your ferry crossing as early as you can, particularly in July and August when kennel space on the Holyhead route sells out first.

Starting from an unvaccinated pet adds at minimum the 21-day wait after the first rabies dose before the AHC can even be issued, so budget five to six weeks from a standing start.

FAQs about UK to Ireland pet transport

Does the old PETS scheme still cover pets moving from the UK to Ireland? No. It ended for Great Britain in January 2021. Ireland now requires an AHC from GB pets, the same as any non-EU country, unless a pre-Brexit EU pet passport is still within its vaccination validity.

Which ferries take pets, and do they charge for it? Stena Line and Irish Ferries both run Holyhead-Dublin with free in-car pet travel and free (but limited) onboard kennels. Liverpool’s ferry goes to Belfast, not Dublin.

Does my dog need tapeworm treatment? Yes, given by a vet 24 to 120 hours before arrival and recorded on the AHC. Cats are exempt; British-mainland dogs are not.

Is there any quarantine? No, provided the paperwork is complete and in order.

Can I fly instead of taking the ferry? You can, but it usually costs more and adds cargo-booking logistics that the ferry route doesn’t require.

Marcus Webb is Senior Pet Relocation Consultant at PetTransportGlobal. For help planning your pet’s move from the UK to Ireland, get a quote here.