Inis Mór residents may be left with no ferry due to levy row

Some 900 residents on the largest Aran Island face no scheduled ferry service on Thursday, as efforts continue to resolve a row over passenger levies.

Island Ferries, the sole operator between south Connemara and Inis Mór, said it has no choice but to withdraw its winter service due to a failure by Galway County Council to recognise its difficulties with a levy.

This has prompted Sinn Féin defence spokesman Aengus Ó Snodaigh to call on Minister of State for Defence Paul Kehoe to provide a Naval Service patrol ship for the stranded islanders.

The ferry company completed its last sailing from Ros a’ Mhíl to Cill Rónáin on Wednesday evening, and said it will not resume until March 17th unless the council shifts its position.

Minister of State for the Gaeltacht Seán Kyne told The Irish Times that he is available at any stage to assist with talks, and expressed the hope that a resolution could be found at a council statutory budget meeting on Thursday.

Failed to settle issue

Various discussions on Wednesday failed to settle the issue or come up with an interim transport arrangement.

Islanders were holding an emergency meeting on Inis Mór on Wednesday night to consider the implications.

The row arises from a bylaw passed by the council in 2011, stipulating that passenger levies must be collected to pay for the harbour development at Inis Mór.

Last December, Island Ferries lost a Supreme Court appeal over the bylaw. The company said it has no problem with harbour dues, but said the additional levy during off-peak season makes its service unsustainable.

The Inis Mór service in winter does not enjoy a State contract, whereas sailings to the two smaller islands of Inis Meáin and Inis Oírr are subsidised and will be maintained.

Inis Mór co-op manager Cathy Ní Ghoill said that it warned the Department of Gaeltacht four years ago that a contract for all three islands was necessary to ensure a sea link over the winter months.

Sharper focus

This has come into sharper focus, due to the current uncertainty over the future of the island's air service, as a contract with Aer Arann expires on December 31st.

Mr Kyne has described as “positive” a compromise proposal by the ferry company, whereby it would agree to collect the levy but at half the rate proposed by the local authority.

Island Ferries spokesman and solicitor Jason O’Sullivan said the compromise would mean that some €200,000 could be paid in back-dated levies to the local authority – instead of the estimated €400,000 since 2012 sought by the council.*

The compromise involves cancelling an annual €5 charge to islanders, and Mr O’Sullivan said that the administrative costs of collecting this were probably greater than the actual yield to the council.

*This article was amended on December 1st 2016 to correct an error