A LEADING Aran island knitwear company and a ferry operator have criticised State expenditure of €16 million on a new berthing structure in Rossaveal, Co Galway.
Wheelchair users and people with reduced mobility are restricted from taking the ferry under the new arrangements, according to Island Ferries, which serves the three Aran islands from Rossaveal. Paddy O’Brien, managing director of Island Ferries, who recently took a High Court action against the department over harbour charges, said he objected to the pontoon proposal in Rossaveal from the outset.
Inis Meáin Knitting Company founder and managing director Tarlach de Blacam said his export business had been affected by the restrictions posed by the new pontoons.
However, the Department of Agriculture and Fisheries has defended the new arrangement, which was designed for ferry passengers only, and points out that the Department of Community, Equality and Gaeltacht Affairs sponsors a separate cargo service to and from the three islands.
The new pontoons, which cost almost €9 million, with associated dredging costing €7 million, were initiated by the State as a scaled-down version of a promised Rossaveal harbour development plan.
Mr de Blacam told The Irish Times that pontoons on one end of the route were unworkable without matching pontoons on the other end, due to tidal factors.
“The problem is that the ferries using the pontoons can only be loaded with cargo on the lower deck, and when the ferry arrives this side at low water, all goods have to be lifted up to 10 feet by hand before they can be placed on the pier,” Mr de Blacam said.
“The same thing happens when the ferry is carrying cargo to the mainland at low water. Cargo loaded on the islands at low water on the upper deck of the ferry has to be lowered 10 feet on to the pontoons,” he said.
“Obviously nobody involved in their design ever thought of this or thought to put a walkway to both decks of the ferries,” he said.
“It seems they were only thinking of day trippers carrying a maximum weight of a packed lunch.”
There were also no facilities for wheelchair users, Mr de Blacam said, and the department had to accept that a large amount of light cargo was carried on the passenger ferry due to its frequency, compared to the cargo ferry’s three trips a week. His company had been “put at a disadvantage” by the new arrangements, he said.
The Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food said the pontoons provide easy access for passenger traffic and hand-held luggage. It said the ferry company had been offered use of a berth at one of Rossaveal’s fixed piers to load on cargo.
However, the Department of Transport has confirmed that the Marine Survey Office ruled against transferring wheelchair passengers on the ferry’s upper deck – where cargo would also be loaded from the fixed pier – for safety reasons.