Jimmy Deenihan (Kerry North, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Ceann Comhairle for allowing me to raise this matter on the Adjournment this evening. The Jeanie Johnston project was initiated in 1995 with the aim of providing a replica of the Jeanie Johnston sailing ship which transported emigrants to the USA during the Famine. It was first intended as a Famine commemoration project and the plan was to sail the replica vessel to the USA in 1998 to mark it. However, construction of the vessel turned out to be more complex and expensive than originally planned. The completion date was put back to 2000, with the intention of making it a millennium project. However, that deadline became impossible because of financial and technical difficulties. In May 2002, the project was taken over by a company comprising representatives of Kerry Group, Shannon Development, Tralee Town Council and Kerry County Council under the chairmanship of Denis Buckley of Kerry Group and the project's chief executive officer, Denis Reen.

The board of directors completed the original objective of the Jeanie Johnston project by undertaking a very successful transatlantic voyage in 2003. In the course of the American voyage, the replica Famine ship was enthusiastically received in 14 US and seven Canadian ports, attracting more than 100,000 visitors on board the ship. It generated extensive media coverage and public awareness, reaching far beyond the Irish diaspora in the US and projecting a very positive image of Ireland today. In the course of its American voyage, the Jeanie Johnston demonstrated its potential for sail training. Under the international fund for Ireland Wider Horizons programme, 93 young people from both sides of the Border and from Unionist and Nationalist communities in Northern Ireland completed a sail training programme on board the Jeanie Johnston.

At a meeting of the Jeanie Johnston board last Friday, a summer programme for the replica ship was agreed which will include a return voyage to North America. However, in a statement released after the meeting, the board announced that, in the absence of Government interest in acquiring the ship, it would have no alternative but actively to pursue a sale option for the tall ship. I agree with the board in its conviction that, under Government ownership, the Jeanie Johnston can have a successful future as a high-profile ambassadorial ship for the promotion of Irish tourism, sail training and cross-Border initiatives, maintaining the project's important North-South dimension.

The ideal home for the Jeanie Johnston is with Coiste an Asgard, which operates the sail training vessel Asgard II. An Coiste receives an annual lottery grant for its operation. That amounted to €693,000 for 2004. The grant could easily be increased, with funding from the national lottery, to include the running costs of the Jeanie Johnston in the event of An Coiste taking over ownership and management of the vessel. I understand that the Asgard II is overbooked, especially during the summer months. It makes an average of 24 sailing trips each year, with 20 trainees on each trip. As I said, during the summer months in particular, it cannot meet the demand. The Jeanie Johnston can take up to 40 trainees and has the capacity to sail to any part of the world, something I understand the Asgard II is unable to do. Some years ago it had to be taken to Australia in a container ship.

The board is convinced, and I agree, that under Government ownership the Jeanie Johnston can have a very successful future. I understand that next Tuesday the Minister will meet the board. I strongly appeal to him to direct Coiste an Asgard to take over ownership of this very fine sailing vessel. Otherwise, the board will have no option but to sell it off to some private investor. It would be a major loss to this country and a major embarrassment if the board had to do so. I appeal to the Minister of State to ensure that the Minister is aware of the case that I make this evening and acts accordingly next Tuesday.

Ivor Callely (Dublin North Central, Fianna Fail)
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I thank Deputy Deenihan for raising this matter on the Adjournment and for his compassion and desire to preserve public ownership of the Jeanie Johnston. My colleague, the Minister for Communications, Marine and Natural Resources, Deputy Dermot Ahern, regrets being unable to take this debate this evening. He would like to have been able to do so but he has other commitments.

I concur with much of what Deputy Deenihan said regarding the importance of retaining the ship in public ownership and the benefits that could accrue therefrom. In light of the fact that Deputy Deenihan mentioned the training courses on the Asgard II vessel, my son, who has a great interest in the marine, is currently enjoying a seven-day training course on it.

As regards the Jeanie Johnston, we all know the project and are aware of some of the difficulties associated with it. The project was commenced in 1996 and is being run by the board and management of the Jeanie Johnston (Ireland) Company Limited. The Department of Communications, Marine and Natural Resources first became involved in June, 2000 when the then Minister agreed to provide grant aid of up to €2.54 million to enable completion of the project. However a due diligence report commissioned by the Department identified that additional funding would be required for the completion of the project and, following the drawing up of a rescue plan, the Minister sought and obtained Government approval in April 2001 to provide additional funding, bringing the total allocation by the Department to this project to just shy of €4 million.

Since the Government decision in April 2001, the primary role of the Department of Communications, Marine and Natural Resources in the Jeanie Johnston project has been to oversee the allocation of the Government's grant funding to the project to ensure that construction of the vessel was completed to the highest possible standards of safety and quality and that it undertook its planned transatlantic voyage to North America.

Following a High Court re-structuring of the Jeanie Johnston (Ireland) Company Limited in late 2002, a consortium comprising Kerry County Council, Tralee Town Council, Shannon Development and Kerry Group plc took over ownership of the Jeanie Johnston replica famine vessel. At the time, my colleague and Minister for Communications, Marine and Natural Resources, Deputy Dermot Ahern, welcomed the decisions taken by Kerry County Council and Tralee Town Council to take over the project in partnership with the Shannon Development Company and the Kerry Group plc. In doing so, the Minister recognised that this initiative provided the only real alternative to an unstructured liquidation of the project, and that it might well be the final chance to preserve the use of the vessel for the tourism and heritage purposes for which it was originally intended.

The Minister also recognised that despite its troubled existence, the Jeanie Johnston project has continued to receive vigorous support from politicians of all political persuasions North and South. Due to my own marine interests, I took the opportunity to visit and board the Jeanie Johnston and I congratulate all who have been involved in the project to date.

Under its new ownership structure, the ship completed its successful maiden voyage to the US and Canada during 2003 where it illustrated the historical famine era links between Ireland and those two countries and generally demonstrated the nature of and cultural and social contribution made by Irish emigration during that period.

All the grant funds allocated by Government to the Jeanie Johnston project have now been paid by the Department of Communications, Marine and Natural Resources. The Minister is aware that the current owners of the vessel have recently announced that they intend to undertake a return visit with the ship to the US this year but that they have made it clear that they do not intend to operate the vessel on an ongoing or long-term basis.

I also understand that, following this trip, the owners would like to offer the vessel as a gift to the State given the large amount of Exchequer funding which went into its construction. Their belief is that this ship should remain as an asset to the State to be utilised mainly as a sail training facility and maritime tourist attraction, both at home and abroad, in the years to come.

The Deputy will no doubt be aware that the State's direct involvement in sail training in Ireland comes under the auspices of Coiste an Asgard, which is chaired by the Minister for Defence, Deputy Michael Smith, and that responsibility for tourism matters comes under the remit of the Minister for Arts, Tourism and Sport, Deputy O'Donoghue. While I can fully understand and support to a certain extent the expression of his views by Deputy Deenihan, I will ensure this matter is brought to the attention of both of my colleagues. We will report back to Deputy Deenihan on what progress can be made on the issue.