STENA LINE has reaffirmed its commitment to Dún Laoghaire after recent speculation that it might quit the harbour.
However, the large fast ferry, HSS Stena Explorer, will run daily only during summer months and a smaller fast ferry service will be used in the winter months.
Stena says all 60 jobs will be retained at Dún Laoghaire and no redundancies are planned.
It introduced the fast ferry service on its Dún Laoghaire-Holyhead route in April 1996 and at peak it was running up to five round trips daily. However, the catamarans can burn almost three times as much fuel, and at a higher grade, than conventional ships and sailing frequency had been reduced to one trip a day.
The withdrawal of the HSS Stena Discovery in January 2007 from the Harwich-Hook of Holland route due to high fuel costs and its subsequent sale to Venezuela had fuelled speculation that the same might happen on its Irish Sea route.
Stena was also finding the higher cost of berthing in Dún Laoghaire prohibitive – €6.7 million annually compared to an estimated €2 million for Dublin Port, where its ferry base is run by a stevedoring company.
Route director Vic Goodwin told a staff meeting the operating costs and port dues in Dún Laoghaire had “placed severe pressure on the financial performance of this route” but he was confident that a new operating agreement from 2011 would cut harbour dues.