Mr. Eugene Drennan:

I want to respond to the questions the Deputy asked about connectivity. Senator Duffy also inquired about Mayo.

The new schedule absolutely includes Mayo. I am a west of Ireland man and always have a west of Ireland head when it comes to connectivity.

I first draw the Deputy's attention to the old schedule. We circulated this to the committee this morning. There are eight different sailings between Dublin and Holyhead, which we were talking about. If the Deputy looks at them in detail, however, there are only four actual timelines. They leave at the same time and arrive at the same time, whereas the current one we have circulated has 13 different timelines. That in itself hops off the page as regards better connectivity, a broader spectrum and better service to Ireland. In these newer schedules, we hear from the ferry lines that wish to go back to the old times. It is an in-house commercial decision by them. Let it be. The new schedules may be tweaked slightly if operators have concerns, but they should not be changed completely. If it is not broken, do not throw it out. It is working so well due to the reasons I have just stated. It is self-explanatory.

On the tourism side, to help tourism here - a person can leave anywhere in middle England get a comfortable sailing to Ireland from Holyhead at 9.30 a.m. or 10.45 a.m. If a person leaves Birmingham, Leicester, Northamptonshire, Coventry or anywhere along that line or up to Manchester or Liverpool and head for Holyhead, he or she will make these sailings at comfortable times. The ferry arrives in Dublin at 12.55 p.m. and 1.05 p.m. If a person is heading for west Mayo, he or she will arrive by 5 p.m. or 6 p.m. It is a daylight journey for families or people returning. It gives a much broader spectrum to people and a lot of choice. Of course, tourism is included in that.

For us, the cattle kill - the same goes for shellfish people - in the autumn, whether delivering to or transiting through the UK, the fishermen go by time of tide, not by time of day. The service line has to back up that time schedule. It is important to have a differentiation in time, not like the old schedule when they were all on top of each other with just four choices. Then the fishermen must get the fish to market in time. Even for us in the industry, we can set a time plan that is more suitable and more aligned with the schedules. One thing we must be sure to not let happen - no matter by what criteria, how we level it or what standard these things are looked at - is a repeat of what happened last Christmas. In any evaluation, the ferry lines, the haulage companies and particularly the customers in Ireland and the UK cannot have this happen again. They are saying the second ramp is now up and running in Holyhead. That will only help to enhance these timelines.