Closure of slipway in Foynes harbour angers townspeople

Jimmy Woulfe, Mid-West Correspondent

More than 300 people attended a public meeting called by Foynes Community Council to protest at the decision.

They are now demanding the immediate reopening of the facility, which they say had been used for generations of local boat owners.

Shannon Foynes Port Company has placed three huge boulders across the entry to the slipway making it inaccessible. Brian Byrne, chief executive of the port company, has defended the closure of the slipway, saying they have taken this action on security and health and safety grounds.

Mr Byrne said: “We called in security consultants to carry out a security and health and safety audit. We were concerned about the dangers the slipway presented and we got a very comprehensive and definitive advice to close it off.”

Mr Byrne said that their primary motive was on health and safety grounds.

He said: “There was no way we could ignore the advice we got, jut to make life easier for ourselves. We knew there would be a certain reaction to the closure, but we felt it better to bite the bullet on that rather than risk life and limb by allowing it remain open.”

Mr Byrne said the slipway also presented a security risk as it was an open back door into the main port area.

He said they have applied to Limerick County Council to construct a new slipway which would be properly fenced off. Once planning permission is obtained, he said this new public slipway could be constructed in about three months.

Foynes Yacht Club was approached by the port company to allow non-members use their slipway but the club said they could not do so because their insurance cover did not permit use by non-club members.

A spokesman for Foynes Community Council said there was a public right of way going back 150 years to the slipway closed down by the port company. He said: the slipway should have been kept open until the proposed replacement slipway was completed.