Red tape put trawler through 14-hour journey

BUREAUCRATIC red tape forced a trawler to undertake a perilous 14-hour journey on the same night as the fishing vessels Pere Charles and Honeydew II were lost, it was claimed yesterday.

A member of Cork County Council said that on January 11 a trawler which was over its threshold weight for landing at all but five designated ports, was forced to steam from a position west of the Blasket Islands to Castletownbere, because it was not allowed to dock in Fenit, Co Kerry.

Cllr Noel Harrington claimed that he was told this by the skipper of the trawler, which he refused to identify, and the skipper of a second vessel who shadowed his friend on the journey, because he was concerned for his safety during the storm.