Troubled famine ship thrown a final lifeline

A FINAL lifeline was yesterday thrown to the crisis-ridden Jeanie Johnston when yet another rescue package this time put forward by Kerry Group was accepted by Kerry County Council.

The 600,000 euro initiative will help keep the project afloat until the end of October at least and should enable the ship which has cost 16m euro, including 10m euro from the taxpayer undertake a long-awaited transatlantic voyage next year.

The county council and Tralee Town Council, which are set to lose up to 6m on the Jeanie Johnston project, will now contribute a further 200,000 euro between them, with Kerry Group also putting in 200,000 euro.

Shannon Development is also to be asked not to seek the repayment of a 190,000 euro grant.

The package, proposed by Kerry Group managing director Hugh Friel, was accepted by 19 votes to three after a four-hour debate at a council meeting in Tralee.

The council had already agreed in principle to abandon the project but, at a recent meeting, decided to give the Jeanie Johnston company time to come up with an alternative package.

Top-level talks were held with the Kerry Group and Mr Friel said they should not walk from the ship before exploring every avenue to save it.

Plans for the ship this year include another visit to Cork, from where it will go to Dublin and Belfast before sailing to La Corona, Spain, on charter.

Mr Friel said the ship would sail to the US at the beginning of next year and would spend the full year in North America, visiting key centres there.

A new board is to be appointed to the project and Kerry county manager Martin Nolan said the existing board would be replaced.

Welcoming the involvement of the Kerry Group, Mr Nolan said the new initiative would have a far greater chance of succeeding than the council's earlier initiative, the withdrawal of which he had recommended because it would put too much of a financial burden on the council. He said the latest initiative offered an alternative to liquidation which would have involved the forced sale of the ship, estimated to be worth just over 1m euro.

The majority of councillors welcomed the Kerry Group's proposal, saying the group's track record and obvious expertise offered the project a final chance of success.

"If it doesn't work with the backing of the Kerry Group, it will never work. It's sink or swim for the Jeanie Johnston now," Deputy Breeda Moynihan-Cronin said.

Cllr Brendan Cronin proposed the council should have no further involvement in the project and it should not be dictated to by a multi-national company such as the Kerry Group.

Cllr Cronin was condemned by other councillors for the attack.