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Swilly ferry up for sale
27.01.09
Fears for Buncrana-Rathmullan
tourism route
by Simon McGeady, Inishowen Independent
FEARS for the future of the Lough Swilly Ferry
Service have emerged this week following
confirmation that the Lough Swilly Ferry has been
put up for sale. Speaking to the Inishowen
Independent at the weekend, Jim McClenaghan,
managing director of the Lough Foyle Ferry Company,
confirmed he had put the Swilly Rambler up for sale
just prior to Christmas because of the uncertainty
over whether the contract for the Buncrana to
Rathmullan service would be renewed for the 2009
season.
The development came after the Greencastle
businessman received unconfirmed reports that the
contract for the service, funded by Donegal County
Council, was not going to be renewed.
The website apolloduck.ie, which advertises new and
used boats for sale, has the 43-metre long vessel
for sale, priced €750,000. |
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Mr McClenaghan said
that since he put the Foyle Rambler up for sale last
month there has been interest from as far away as
Iran and several other countries in the Middle East
as well as Holland, Germany, England and from within
Ireland.
Mr McClenaghan believes the Buncrana to Rathmullan
route will never be |
economically viable for
an operator without grant aid and he also called for
financial assistance for the Foyle Ferry in order to
keep ticket prices down.
The ferry company boss gave Donegal County Council a
January deadline to come up with a contract offer
for this year and beyond. If the Lough Swilly Ferry
service stops, even for a year, he believes this
will mean a permanent end to the route.
Mr McClenaghan said a meeting between Inishowen
Electoral Area councillors and Gary Martin, the
Donegal County Council Community Enterprise
official, took place on Friday and that while he
wanted to continue the Lough Swilly service, he
would not have put the ferry up for sale if he was
optimistic a deal could be made.
While acknowledging that a lot of work has gone on
behind the scenes in the last few weeks he could
not, he continued, take the risk that his investment
would be lying idle this summer, hence the move to
advertise the vessel online.
The Foyle and Lough Swilly Ferries, he added, should
come under the aegis of the Department of Transport
and his company be given a long term contract
instead of the current year-by-year deal.
A decision on whether or not to sell the Foyle
Rambler, which has operated in summer since 2004,
had to be taken within the next month to six weeks,
Mr McClenaghan told the Inishowen Independent.
Meanwhile local TD Joe McHugh has come out strongly
in support of the ferry services on both the Foyle
and the Swilly.
In a statement issued yesterday Deputy McHugh said:
“The Lough Foyle and Lough Swilly ferry services are
the critical corridor for tourism in north Ulster. A
survey of passengers on the two ferries completed in
2006 shows that the majority of respondents on the
Foyle ferry visit Malin Head (Donegal) and the
Giant’s Causeway, while Glenveagh and Malin Head are
the most common destinations for passengers on the
Swilly ferry. A sizeable proportion of the Lough
Swilly ferry passengers also visit the Giant’s
Causeway (Antrim) and the City Walls of Derry.
Dublin and Stormont must provide or secure funding
for this service, and they must do it quickly.” |
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