Michael Collins (Cork South West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I have raised the Dursey Island crisis, off Castletownbere, on numerous occasions, mainly because the world-famous Dursey cable car has been suspended for months due to repair works. I fought for funding and we were told by the Minister, Deputy Humphreys, that funding would be provided for a ferry service while the cable car was being repaired. The devil is in the detail. The ferry service that the Minister provided funding for only runs on three days a week. On top of this, it only runs for two hours a day, leaving islanders and landowners on the island with little time to look after their cattle or to get to a clinic or to do shopping in Castletownbere and back again. I said at the beginning that the Department should have sat down with the local authority to draw up a plan, but all I got in the Dáil was one person saying one thing and another person saying another. The people of Dursey Island and Castletownbere have been treated disgracefully by this Government, which has funded a three-day ferry service, when they need a proper seven-day ferry service and a cargo ferry service. Will the Minister sit down with the Minister, Deputy Humphreys, and get funding for a full, seven-day, temporary ferry service for the people of Dursey Island and Castletownbere?

See this speech in context