AROUND 10 people have been interviewed for the post of chief executive of Ireland’s planned new ferry company.

WEST Cork Tourism is seeking to appoint a chief executive to run the Fastnet Line which will relaunch the Swansea-Cork ferry route next March.

PLANS to relaunch the Cork-Swansea ferry route have been dry-docked for this year.

A DECISION to defer the planned reintroduction of the Cork-Swansea route represents a major setback for the hard-pressed tourism industry in the south-west.

A FINNISH bank has agreed to sell a ferry to an Irish consortium which hopes to restart the Cork-Swansea route by the end of next month.

IT’S full steam ahead for fundraisers aiming to collect the €3 million required to refloat the Cork-Swansea car and passenger ferry.

FUNDRAISERS in Ireland and Wales have been given a new deadline of March 10 to come up with a shortfall in the e3 million needed to relaunch the Cork-Swansea ferry service.

THE man planning to re-launch the Cork-Swansea sea route is flying to Finland today where he hopes to conclude a deal to acquire a new €10 million ferry.

A MAN whose father was one of the main movers behind the first Swansea-Cork ferry link is hoping to resurrect the service and use its former name, the B&I (British & Irish) Line.

TALKS on the possibility of reactivating the Swansea-Cork ferry service are said to be at a critical stage.

THE reopening of Swansea-Cork Ferries service hung in the balance last night after it emerged that the Port of Cork had refused to lend the company €3 million towards the cost of a new ferry.

A PASSENGER ferry link between the Irish south-west and Wales could be re-established in 2008.

AS one of the thousands who practically commutes from Britain and further afield to second homes and relatives in west Cork, using the most practical route, I am devastated by the grossly mismanaged and short-sighted decision by Swansea-Cork Ferries to halt services.

A CREW of intrepid Munster fans could yet launch themselves across a storm-tossed Irish Sea in a bid to make Saturday’s crunch Heineken Cup decider in Cardiff.

AER LINGUS is poised to launch a trans-Atlantic service to the USA from Cork when the current open skies negotiations with the US are concluded, Cork Chamber of Commerce president Robin O'Sullivan said last night.