The future of the Dunbrody Famine ship project, which has been hampered by a major funding shortfall, is set to become much clearer over the next few weeks.
A consultancy report identifying how much money is needed to complete the project as well as possible sources of funding is almost ready for presentation to the parties involved.
The 176-foot wooden replica of a Famine emigrant ship which left Ireland in the 1840s was due to sail from New Ross, where it is being built, to Boston in March of last year.
The ambitious scheme has cost £3 million to date. The failure to meet its launch target has been a source of great frustration to the John F. Kennedy Trust, which is overseeing the project.
The hull of the vessel has recently been completed, and the Dunbrody is a major tourist attraction. It had 40,000 visitors in 1998. Today's visitors to New Ross port can see a full-scale replica of the original Dunbrody which was built in Quebec in 1845 for the prosperous Graves family in New Ross. It is still to be fitted with the engines and equipment needed to meet seagoing regulations.
Mr Sean Reidy, chief executive of the JFK Trust, recognises that a real seafaring tall ship will be an even bigger attraction than one built for exhibition purposes only. He said part of the attraction is that the ship actually sails.
But fitting the components needed to enable this to happen is extremely expensive. He would not speculate on how much more money is needed, until the report by CHL Consultants of Dublin on the project's future is completed. The study was jointly commissioned in May by the JFK Trust; Bord Failte; the Department of Tourism, Sport and Recreation; Wexford County Council; and FAS.
The study will establish how much it will cost to complete the ship, identify possible sources of funding and look at how the ship might best be utilised in the future. The original intention was that it would be a major tourist attraction on the quays of New Ross but would also, in off-peak periods, sail to other locations to promote Ireland as a tourist destination. One of its features will be a high-tech "Spirit of Ireland" interpretative exhibition including a computer database on Irish immigration to the US from 1820. The CHL report would be forwarded to State agencies with the potential to provide the "significant sum" still needed, said Mr Reidy, acknowledging that ultimately the success of the project would depend on further State support. The EU has contributed, via Bord Failte, £1.6 million, more than half the overall cost to date.
FAS and Wexford County Council have also been major contributors, while the trust itself has raised £650,000 locally and in the US and corporate sponsorship.
Coillte has sponsored much of the timber and established a plantation in the name of the ship.
Despite setbacks Mr Reidy and the people of New Ross remain as enthusiastic about the project as they have been from the start.
All that's required is one last push to set the Dunbrody on its maiden voyage.