The Jeanie Johnston replica famine ship project in Co Kerry is a disaster, according to the Minister for the Marine, Mr Fahy, and "the big headache" of his time since taking over the department.
Speaking on Radio Kerry, following the ship's arrest by Customs officials in Fenit, Co Kerry, he said: "It's been the big headache of my two years in this department. It's a pity it's been such a disaster."
An electrical company, M J Marshall Ltd, of Killarney, claimed in the High Court on Wednesday it was owed more than €170,000 for works, materials and services carried out on the vessel.
The Jeanie Johnston company said in a statement it would vigorously contest this claim and that it already had an action with regard to the work of the company. However, more creditors came forward yesterday and legal actions were being instigated to recover the money.
The Minister discounted the possibility of further State finance for a transatlantic voyage. The Jeanie Johnston had been "a great idea", Mr Fahy said, but it had gone to "three or four times" its original cost and the State had already picked up an overrun of €10.5 million. There was no more public money available for the project.
Customs officials are holding the vessel under a 200-year-old naval law which was invoked to "arrest" the ship, which is about a fortnight from completion.
The ship was conceived as a tourism heritage project in the mid-1990s. It was to sail to North America and visit more than 20 ports in the millennium year. After numerous delays, the voyage was again cancelled last year.
It has now missed two deadlines, and the shipyard in Blennerville, outside Tralee, where it was to be berthed after its historic voyage, is being sold.
According to the annual report of the Comptroller and Auditor General, issued last year, the expected final cost of the project would be about €15.74 million, including a FAS input of almost €1.8 million in allowances to participants.
Apart from the International Fund for Ireland, which donated over €500,000, private funding amounted to just €1.65 million. Of this the Elan corporation is the biggest contributor.
There are now concerns that Kerry Co Council's guarantee of tourism grants of around €1.3 million, given under the EU Tourism Operational programme, may have to be repaid if the ship does not sail to the US.
A report to the Department of the Marine in September 2000 claimed the company was "insolvent and unable to pay its debts as they fall due".
That report found the Jeanie Johnston company to have no clearly defined management structure. At this stage costs were projected at about €10 million.
There have been attempts at restructuring and revamping.
In April 2001, days before the company was to go to the High Court to seek an examiner for the project, a lifeline of €2.54 million Government funding, through the Department of the Marine, was announced by Minister for Justice Mr O'Donoghue.
In all, the Department of the Marine has administered exchequer grants of over €4 million to the project.
The Department of the Marine did not seek to become involved in the project, they told Mr Purcell, the Comptroller and Auditor General.
"The department's role in rescuing the project followed directly from policy decisions taken by Ministers and the Government," the report said.
Kerry Co Council and Tralee UDC have underwritten grants and loans and contributed €5 million directly.