Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)

I was in Cork last weekend and this matter had come to a conclusion the night before I arrived. I commended all those who had put up their money to see if that proposal would work. There were a small number of staff in permanent jobs in the business and a sizeable proportion of the staff were agency workers who pay their taxes in another country but, be that as it may, it was undoubtedly a fact that the local spend from this service in the Cork-Kerry region was of the order of €30 million and a substantial number of persons were carried on that ferry.

I met some other people who might have views about re-attempting another programme there, but this is a case of where, clearly, State assistance could not be given in one case and not in another. While I commended those who put together the proposal and raised, by all accounts, serious money, it just was not possible to see it through. The position regarding the workers is that the number of permanent employees was small and the remainder of the staff were agency workers who pay their taxes in a different country.

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