Swansea ferry setback set to hit summer tourism in west Cork

HOPES of reactivating a Cork-Swansea ferry link received a significant setback last night, which makes it highly unlikely a service will be in place for the summer tourist season.

A consortium, lead by a Kerryman, has seen its plans of leasing a €16 million ferry from a Scandinavian company dashed.

The consortium had sought to buy the Colorline-owned Christian IV — which operates a ferry link between Norway and Denmark.

However, Colorline has not been able to acquire a replacement vessel as quickly as it had hoped and will have to keep the Christian IV in service longer than anticipated.

Port of Cork marketing manager, Captain Michael McCarthy, admitted it was a severe setback.

“There’s no doubt this is a setback. We are still endeavouring to find another suitable vessel, but due to the late timescale it is highly unlikely we will have a service up and running for the summer,” he said.

However, he said he was still hopeful the route will be reopened for 2009.

“I still think this is a commercially viable route,” he said.

The latest news will have a negative impact on the Cork and Kerry tourist industry.

A study carried out last year showed the demise of the ferry link cost the region an estimated €38m last year.

Another summer without the ferry is expected to particularly hit small hotels, bed and breakfasts and bars in the west Cork area. Most tourists using the ferry were British-based families who typically holidayed for two or three weeks in the area and were known to be good spenders.

Swansea-Cork Ferry company announced in late 2006 it was ceasing its operations on the route.

An attempt was made last October by its former managing director, Thomas Hunter-McGowan, to form a new company.

But his attempt failed after the Port of Cork refused to invest €3m in the project.

The port authorities said they couldn’t invest in one company when there was a rival consortium also seeking to reactivate the service.