Doolin harbourmaster will oversee ferry rivals

A harbourmaster is to be employed at Doolin this summer in an effort to ease tensions between two rival ferry companies operating from the north Clare harbour.

The Clare county manager, Mr Alec Fleming, said yesterday that the the council was also willing to act as a broker between the two companies which serve the three Aran Islands. Tensions were so high between the companies, Doolin Ferries and Aran Islands Fast Ferries Ltd, that gardaí patrolled the pier.

Summonses were served on a director of Doolin Ferries, Mr Bill O'Brien, and a spokesman for Aran Islands Fast Ferries Ltd, Mr Dick Grant, and the cases are to be heard in the District Court in May.

The Doolin Tourism Co-op wrote to both companies at the end of last season expressing its concern over the situation. It said complaints were giving Doolin a bad name and were seriously interfering with the amenity and recreational value of the area.

The county council said last autumn that it would introduce bylaws for the harbour this summer in an attempt to regulate affairs. However, at the council's adjourned April meeting yesterday, the county manager said the bylaws would not be in place for this summer. He said the council was open to talking to the parties concerned in an effort to broker something.

Cllr Joe Arkins (FG) told the meeting he was surprised that the bylaws were not more advanced and added that not even the gardaí could broker a deal last summer. "It is sending out a wrong message, and it would be unfortunate if we had a repeat of last summer," he said.