Council offers help to ferry firm after further technical problems

CORK County Council is prepared to offer its expertise to the embattled MV Julia should its owners, the Fastnet Line, require help.

That message has come from assistant county manager, Theresa White, who said the local authority was fully behind the ferry company and would do anything it could on its behalf.

Conor Buckley, chairman of West Cork Tourism – which raised the cash to purchase the vessel – said he was confident the vessel would sail out of Ringaskiddy tonight, following yet another postponement due to electronic malfunctions.

The ferry’s inaugural sailing was postponed on March 1 and again a few days later.

Last Thursday, on her way to Swansea, she lost full power on one of her four engines due to electronic failure.

The MV Julia limped into the Welsh port seven hours late.

The following night, her inner bow door also developed electronic problems and instead of leaving Swansea at 7pm, she didn’t sail for Cork until 1am on Saturday.

Mr Buckley acknowledged that the Fastnet Line had encountered more than its fair share of teething problems, but said he believed it would soon be plain sailing.

The chairman of the county council’s Western Committee, Cllr Jim Daly, said he was also sure these “minor teething problems” would be overcome.

“Anybody who ever opened a business knows that if anything is to go wrong it will happen in the first month,” the Fine Gael councillor said.

On a positive note he said he recently met with two B&B operators who confirmed their bookings were markedly up on last year and they were putting this down to the reinstatement of the Cork-Swansea ferry link, after a four-year absence.

Cllr Donal O’Rourke (Fianna Fáil) said he was also confident the service would be a winner.

“We stand in admiration of the people who mobilised their forces to get this ship going. These people (the ferry cooperative) gathered €3 million in a small part of the country during the middle of a recession.”

Cllr Danny Crowley (FF) proclaimed that B&B and hotel owners he’d talked to said their bookings were up 30% because of the return of the service.

Ms White said the county council – which bought €200,000 of shares in the Fastnet Line – was constantly liaising with the company.

“We are proud to be associated with them and they have a marvellous leader in Conor Buckley. Hopefully all of the bugs will shortly be ironed out of the system. We have an open door if they need help and they know they can come and talk to us.”

Cllr Dermot Sheehan (FG) said a hotel in Schull opened a month early due to demand from visiting Welsh people.

Last weekend, the hotel hosted a choir from Wales.

“It means that 20 local people were back at work a month earlier than expected and that has to be good news,” he said.