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Dáil Éireann debate -
Thursday, 28 Jun 1984

Vol. 352 No. 5

Written Answers. - Aran Islands Ferry Service.

105.

asked the Minister for Communications if he will outline arrangements for the transport of summer passengers to each of the Aran Islands in County Galway during 1984.

106.

asked the Minister for Communications the reason he has turned down the proposal for passenger ferry improvements put forward by B & I and the group from the Aran Islands which visited Scotland earlier in the year to view ferry services there.

107.

asked the Minister for Communications if he has received a request to meet with representatives of Comharchumann Inis Meáin Teo. and Comhar Caomhán Teo. Inis Oírr, Aran Islands, county Galway, to discuss 1984 summer passenger ferry operations to the islands; and if he will reconsider his decision to refuse to meet with the islanders.

I propose to take Questions Nos. 105, 106 and 107 together. In early May I conveyed to CIE my agreement to chartering by that company of the m.v. Galway Bay to provide supplementary passenger services for this summer on the Galway-Aran route.

An alternative proposal involving a high-speed passenger vessel would have necessitated an operational test for that vessel in Galway during the month of May, before a decision on its suitability could have been taken. With the approach of the summer season, I considered that an urgent decision on the 1984 summer chartering arrangements was the paramount requirement, and a test of the alternative vessel would in my view have delayed that decision unduly. Financial projections for the 1984 summer operations, which favoured the Galway Bay as against the alternative vessel, also influenced my decision.

I am expecting shortly from CIE a report on the evaluation, which that company has arranged for at my request of all the various options for meeting the passenger and freight requirements of the islands in future years.

As regards the request of the island co-operatives for a meeting, I have agreed to make available senior officials of my Department to meet with the cooperatives if they so wish.

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