County Council budget meeting to seek last minute resolution to Inis Mor ferry crisis

Galway Bay fm newsroom – A resolution to the Inis Mór ferry crisis will be sought tomorrow at the County Council annual budget meeting in a last minute effort to save the service from withdrawal over the winter.
It comes as Island Ferries Teo has reaffirmed it’s intention to withdraw the service from this evening until March 2017 – citing the ‘negative fiscal conditions’ created by the local authority.
Councillors will tomorrow be asked to reduce the passenger levy from 80c to 40c per passenger – and to outright scrap the €5 passenger fee for permanent residents on the island.
It follows a meeting held this morning with Acting County Manager Kevin Kelly to discuss the dispute, which centres on a 2011 bye-law which introduced the ‘per-passenger’ levies at the centre of the crisis.
Island Ferries Teo has confirmed that it will push ahead with the immediate withdrawal of the service to the largest Aran Island tomorrow – and the last ferry will be at 6 this evening.
Jason O Sullivan, who is representing Island Ferries Teo, says the County Council has not made enough of an effort to resolve the situation.