I thank the Cathaoirleach for selecting this topic which is a serious issue in my constituency. It is a personal issue and I openly declare my interest. I have been at the heart of developing the car ferry in the Foyle in my time in politics, which dates back 13 or 14 years.
Twenty years previously my father had been involved in working with a small number of Limavady councillors to develop a car ferry. In the late 1970s they went down to Tarbert to see the work going on there and evaluate the potential for a car ferry in the Foyle. They also looked at bridges. They looked at all the different potential solutions. Finally, the car ferry became a reality in 2002 because the then Minister for Finance, Charlie McCreevy, believed me when I said that if he gave us substantial moneys from the 1999 peace and reconciliation fund, we would be able to spend it on something which really would build peace and reconciliation in my part of the world. As a result, we got a car ferry. Within two years 1 million customers had used the car ferry. If the Minister of State, Deputy Roche, left Dublin now and typed Moville, Greencastle or any part of Inishowen into his satellite navigator, which he, with a driver, probably does not need, he would be brought to Magilligan where he would cross over to Greencastle.
It is an important a piece of infrastructure for us from the point of view of tourism and the chamber of commerce and as a getting-to-know-you exercise between the communities on both sides of the Foyle. I walk the shore quite often and I regularly meet people who still come over just to stand and look back at their area to work out where Greysteel, Ballykelly, Portrush and Portstewart are. They have never seen their own area from the other side of the Foyle. Likewise, we go over and contribute to the economies of places such as Limavady and Coleraine. That is brilliant.
However, anyone who sees what is happening on arrival at Magilligan — it was important that it was witnessed by BBC television — would think it was a clip from the 1970s or 1980s. Every car is being stopped. This happens in a cage because a cage was provided as part of security in the initial concept. People are taken out and searched similar to what one would encounter at airport security. They have the long metal pole with the mirror on the bottom to check under the cars, I assume for bombs. They have all forms of security which, as I stated, hark back to a time that is not reminiscent of or conducive to developing peace and reconciliation. It impacts severely on the car ferry's operation.
I accept what Limavady Borough Council has told me, that this is part of staff training, that it is important they know how to implement the security and that it will not be as bad in the future. I want the international port designation removed from this location. This is an inland waterway. An international port is supposed to serve something that is surrounded by water. The North is not a jurisdiction that is surrounded by water and, therefore, it does not comply with the terms of what an international port should be.
If this were a bridge instead of a ferry, which it might have been because it is 0.6 of a mile across, then it would have been exactly the same as Lifford and Strabane. Lifford is in Donegal and Strabane is in Tyrone. There is a bridge across the same river; there is no routine security. There is customs at times, but no routine security. It is not a sufficient measure to say that this will be stepped down. Security is an important aspect of any country. There is a finite point of Greencastle and Magilligan. If I were an international terrorist — I have no criminal mind — I do not think I would get on a regular ferry service, cross over and go onto a narrow road that goes past Magilligan prison and is surrounded by locations in which the army is undergoing training and exploding bombs. I would pull into an enclave or cove on any other part of the Foyle, Antrim or Donegal coast.
This is so ridiculous that it is hard to believe I am talking about it. It is a reality that must stop, for many reasons. My father would not have believed that the ferry came into existence. Yet it did so and is an exceptional example of cross-Border cooperation. It took 30 years to materialise, but when the money was provided the political will on every side was in place. I hark back to the BBC newsclip that was done. We had people from all sides, political and non-political, who were clearly saying that it should be on both sides or neither side, but preferably neither side. We do not intend to hark back to the 1970s or 1980s in Donegal, and we do not want it brought back to us in Magilligan either. I speak for the majority of the people of the north west, not just on one or other side of the Border.
