Joint campaign to restore ferry service

THREE local authorities have agreed to work together to restore the Cork to Swansea ferry link.

The news emerged after a meeting yesterday between the mayors of Cork city, Cork county and Kerry along with the respective city and county managers and the South West Regional Authority’s director and chairman.

Mayor of Cork county Noel Harrington, Cork city’s mayor Brian Bermingham and mayor of Kerry Tom Fleming held talks on the issue in Cork County Hall with Cork’s county manager, Martin Riordan, Cork’s city manager Joe Gavin, Kerry county manager Tom Curran and the authority’s director, John McAleer and its chairman, Cllr Jim Corr.

Mr Harrington, who has pledged to make restoring the ferry link one of his main priorities for his term as county mayor, described the talks as “frank and open”.

He said they plan to make contact with other stakeholders in the coming weeks to get their views on how best to approach the issue.

“We are doing everything we can to explore every possibility to reinstate the ferry,” he said.

The next meeting of the group is due to take place next month.

Yesterday’s meeting marks the start of the first concerted cross-party political effort at regional level to address the issue which has begun to hit the region’s tourism business.

The authority is the statutory public body with responsibility for strategic planning in the region.

Mr McAleer has described as crazy, the fact that a region so dependent on tourism does not have a ferry link to a potential market of 60 million people. The Swansea-Cork Ferry company announced in late 2006 it was ceasing operations on the route.

An attempt was made last October by its former managing director, Thomas Hunter-McGowan, to form a new company. However, the attempt failed after the Port of Cork refused to invest €3 million in the project.

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

The region is now facing its second season without the vital ferry service, which brought close to 100,000 people to the region every year.

A study showed the demise of the ferry link cost the region an estimated €38 million in 2007.