Study backs subsidised ferry services for the islands

AN EXPERT study has backed the need for subsidised ferry travel to offshore communities.

However, with radical changes on the way for ferry services, subsidised support may be reduced or withdrawn for some islands.

Island communities and interested parties have one month to respond to new recommendations put forward in a consultants’ report published yesterday.

Value for money and the need for competition to avoid monopolies on transport services to islands are advocated in the report.

Junior Minister Eamon Ó Cuív, with responsibility for islands, said current subsidies for most island ferry services are not over-generous. “In terms of general public transport spending and the cost to passengers, it would be widely accepted subsidised ferry services are very competitive,” he said.

The comprehensive study, the first of its kind into island transport services, was carried out by consultants Malachy Walsh and Partners in co-operation with Posford Haskoning, Raymond Burke Consulting, McCaig Watson and Seosamh Mac Donnacha.

Commissioned by the Department of Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs, the report suggested value for money can be difficult to ensure in any market where there was little or no competition.

Among the study’s recommendations is that the tender process and evaluation should be formal, structured and transparent.

The experts also advise contracts should be more rigorous in terms of information requirements while enforcement and penalty clauses should be explicit with regular reporting the norm.

“This is already the case for the subsidised air service to the Aran Islands,” the report noted, advising the contracts should be tendered on a five-year basis.

“Our examination of the ferry services has confirmed the need for a subsidy,” said the experts in their report, the Study of Island Ferry Services. “However, in times of inflation, subsidy levels cannot be expected to remain static if services are to remain the same, particularly if there is no change in passenger and freight rates.”

The report continued: “While it is likely that some of our proposals should result in a reduced overall subsidy amount allowing for a compensating increase for other services, there will be times when the Department will have to decide on whether the subsidy for particular services should be reduced, withdrawn or fixed at a particular level to ensure the overall subsidy target is achieved.” The latest figures available show subsidised ferry services to 14 islands on the western seaboard carried almost 240,000 passengers in 2002.

Prior to Mr Ó Cuív taking office in 1997, only two islands received subsidised services.