Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Unfortunately, I will be unable to meet them today. As the Deputy is aware, I will be in the Chamber for the next number of hours, after which I have appointments that were made six and seven weeks ago which I cannot cancel. I am informed by the Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht that it ran an open tender competition for the service in accordance with public procurement rules. Two tenders were received and evaluated and the contract was awarded to Réalt na Maidne Teoranta using its vessel MV Queen of Aran. The new contract is to begin in April.

The Department has had extensive engagement with the island representatives and is happy to continue that engagement as part of its ongoing commitment to support island communities. The island community is not happy with the proposed vessel and has requested that it be a condition of the new contract that the duration of the journey should be no longer than 30 minutes. While this vessel is older than the one currently used, it is undergoing a full refit-----

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