Councillors in Kerry yesterday put off for two weeks a decision on cutting their links with the Jeanie Johnston Famine replica ship project.
The firm involved in the project, the Jeanie Johnston Company, has pleaded for more time to get the best deal for creditors and to prevent the ship going into immediate liquidation.
Kerry County Council and Tralee Urban Council have kept the project afloat with financial support but county manager Mr Martin Nolan has recommended that councillors cease involvement.
Yesterday councillors agreed to defer a decision for two weeks - providing it cost the council no more money.
Both local authorities are owed under €1 million, between them, by the company.
They will be paying back €285,000 a year for 15 years to furnish a Bank of Ireland loan they underwrote, Mr John O'Connor, head of finance, explained.
The council has not quantified the "significant" number of staff hours and overtime and resources committed to the project.
Mr Nolan ruled out suggestions that the council should take over the project. "There's no way the initiative is going to work," he said.
Were the council to take control and run the ship as a visitor attraction, it would cost them €5 million in paying back donations, and in contingent claims as well as financing loans, far more than was envisaged earlier in the year.
The value of the Jeanie Johnston as a visitor attraction was less than expected, Mr Nolan said. The ship was only valued at €1.27 million.
However, the company stood by the valuation given to it by a separate company of over twice that.
The sale of the shipyard property and its 4.5 acres in Blennerville, near Tralee, had not materialised as expected. It was hoped to realise about €2.5 million from the sale.
The project had cost around €13 million, Mr Jim Finucane, chairman of the Jeanie Johnston Company, said. He said the ship was insured for €6 million.
Not having gone into liquidation in February meant the ship has been finished and has sail certification and this has benefited trade creditors, Mr Nolan stressed.
Cllr Ned O'Sullivan (FF) spoke of the damage that had been done to the community effort in Kerry by the project.
As a Kerryman he felt ashamed to have become "the laughing stock" of the whole country.
"The Jeanie Johnston has holed us below the water line. A curse on it. Finish it," Cllr O'Sullivan said, adding that it gave him no pleasure to say what he had to say.
Mr Finucane said he would give a detailed financial account of where the money went. Since Thursday "a significant corporate entity" had come forward to underwrite the ship until the end of September, he said.
The Ford company had booked it for Ford Week in Cork harbour.
A further group had booked it in late August and the ship stood to earn €70,000, he said.
The council will meet again on July 15th when they are expected to rubber-stamp their exit from the project. "The emphasis from today moves to the company," Mr Nolan said.