Thursday, 23 April 2009 - Council commits €250,000 to ferry   
Cork Independent -  by Mary O’ Keeffe  

Cork County Council has committed significant funding towards the re-establishment of the Cork Swansea ferry service. The local authority yesterday announced that it will provide up to €250,000 towards the ferry service’s marketing plan which it hopes will be match funded by Failte Ireland in the South West.

Investors

Many individual investors have also contributed significantly to the campaign to bring back the Swansea Cork Ferry. The Port of Cork has committed subsidies to the tune of €500,000 a year for three years while the Associated British Ports have committed the same amount. In all up to
€3.5 million has been committed towards the operating and marketing costs.

Committed

Announcing details of Cork County Council’s funding commitment, County Mayor, Noel Harrington said, "When I took the chair of Cork County Council, I set myself key objectives, including reinstating the Swansea Cork Ferry. The Council got involved in that campaign from a very early stage along with the Port of Cork and the Port of Swansea and particularly with West Cork Tourism who really took up the gauntlet and formed a Co-Operative to drive the venture," adding, "We have now committed to help fund the ferry services marketing campaign."

Negotiations

Negotiations to purchase a Finnish vessel, the Julia, for the Swansea-Cork route are currently under way between a liquidator in Finland and West Cork Tourism Co-Operative Ltd. Effectively, a deal accepted by a Finnish court, has cleared the way for the Co-Op to purchase of the vessel for €7.8 million**. The funding will come from the Co-op's shareholders and a bank loan.

** - Actually - we are still waiting for approval from the Finnish Courts
- we hope that this will  come through very soon!
- Adrian, Campaign Co-organiser