Tuesday, February 14, 2012
The mayor of Co Cork, Cllr Tim Lombard, is to lead a delegation to meet Minister for Marine Simon Coveney in a last-ditch attempt to get Government backing to save the Cork-Swansea ferry.
Councillors unanimously supported the proposal yesterday, with many critical of Enterprise Ireland’s unwillingness to support the ferry service, which ultimately led to the company being put into liquidation.
Cllr Alan Coleman (FF) said the county council had put €300,000 into the ferry and was prepared to put in another €200,000 to keep it afloat, but claimed the Government would not bridge the gap needed when the Fastnet Line was in examinership.
He urged the mayor to approach Taoiseach Enda Kenny and Mr Coveney to convince them to release money to get the MV Julia back into service.
"Minister Coveney should push the boat out on this one to ensure this necessary link with Wales is maintained. Cork’s city council and county council, along with Kerry County Council, all put their money where their mouths were," he said. "We’re demanding that action is taken to get this ferry refloated."
Cllr John O’Sullivan (FG) said the ferry not only carried 153,000 tourists in the past two years, but was also the only ferry operating out of the state which had a live animal export licence.
The demise of the service, he noted, would also have serious consequences for farmers.
Cllr Donal O’Rourke (FF) said West Cork in particular had benefited from the service and the EU needed to step in and ensure that the connectivity to the peripheral areas within Europe was maintained.
It was pointed out by Cllr Dermot Sheehan (FG) that the EU was preparing to spend €5bn in 2014 to aid connectivity between member states.
"Money should be made available from that fund to safeguard this [ferry] connection. We should see if we can get an advance of even €1m from it to restart the service. It would be a shame if we lost it after all the hard work which had been done," Cllr Sheehan said.
Cllr Michael Hegarty (FG) said that comments made by the court-appointed examiner showed that the service was viable and it was crucial for the local economy that it was kept going.
Meanwhile, Cllr Pat Murphy (FF) said: "There are a lot of worried tourism businesses out there. Enterprise Ireland was found seriously wanting and pulled the rug out from under the project. The Welsh government didn’t seem to have a problem with funding it."
Cllr Deirdre Forde (FG) said Enterprise Ireland officials should be summoned to the council to give the reasons why they did not support the venture. However, Mr Lombard said he did not see any point in doing that because of the "disregard" shown to the council previously by Enterprise Ireland.
County manager Martin Riordan said the county council had been committed to the Fastnet Line since its inception.
"It is unknown what will happen in the receivership process but probably the boat will be put up for sale. It looks that 2012 is not a runner [to restart the service] but we will try and work positively on it for 2013," he said.
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