Islanders are all at sea over Galway ferry service

Aran Islanders are all at sea following a court ruling that threatens the viability of the only ferry service between Inis Mór and Galway.

Island Ferries Teo says it will stop its Ros an Mhíl to Cill Rónain service from January 17 after it lost a Supreme Court appeal over harbour charges levied by Galway County Council.

This latest existential threat to islanders comes just months after a debacle over the state contract for subsidised flights created huge uncertainty about an air service from Na Mine in Connemara to serve the islands.

“There appears to be a vendetta against Aran Islanders,” said Cathy Ní Ghóill, Comharchumann Forbartha Árann.

“The Government needs to sit down and get their act together on a policy for the islands, and in particular the Aran Islands. We are lurching from crisis to crisis, and fire-fighting.

“They are threatening services that have been in place for over a hundred years. The policy doesn’t seem to be to support islands. It is an absolute disgrace and disgusting the way we are being treated. This doesn’t happen to the islands in Scotland or in Denmark. It’s only in Ireland,” said the Co-Op manager on the largest of the three islands.

She said the 80 cents levy was the equivalent of charging people 80 cents for going in and out of Galway City.

Speaking on the Adhmhaidin programme on Radió na Gaeltachta on Wednesday, Paddy O’Brien, owner of Island Ferries, confirmed that the company has no choice but to withdraw services from mid-January.

Mr O’Brien said the company cannot keep the service going during the winter as it was losing too much money. It would look again at trying to re-opening the service again in summer but the local authority and harbour master may not allow them if they refuse to pay the levy.

Mr O’Brien pointed out that the company is willing and able to pay charges per tonnage but it is not able to pay the 80 cents charge per person per trip. It would cost the company €120,000 per year, he said.

When asked why the company doesn’t just pass on the charge to passengers, Mr O’Brien said if the County Council wants to levy passengers for travelling to Inis Mór, there is no reason why the ferry company should have to collect that tax.

See full story in this week’s Connacht Tribune.