Press Release
For Immediate Use
16 May 2005
Council to relaunch Lough Swilly ferry service
The successful Lough Swilly Ferry service, with some 60,000 passengers using the service in 2004, is set to be re-launched by Donegal County Council this Friday(20 May 2005).
This service, running from Buncrana to Rathmullan, was initially run on a pilot basis during the summer season of 2004 and was a huge success with some 60,000 passengers using the service.
As a result of this Donegal County Council recognised the value in an economic and tourism sense that this ferry service brought to the areas that it served and allocated a substantial amount of money to meet the ongoing costs of the service for a further period during the summer/early autumn of 2005. The Council has committed in excess of some €120,000 directly to support the service for 2005.
Speaking this week, Mr. Garry Martin, Divisional Manager with Community, Culture and Enterprise, Donegal County Council highlighted the value of the service to the areas. “The council a number of years ago, invested in the infrastructure at Buncrana and at Rathmullan piers. This was done with great foresight as it has now offered the opportunity to run an important seasonal ferry service between the two peninsulas, which is clearly very positive for the areas in a tourism and economic sense. While the summer of 2004 was one of the poorest from a weather perspective in recent years, substantial numbers of visitors still used the service, and we envisage that the numbers will be even higher this year.”
The Swilly Ferry service compliments the existing Foyle Ferry service, which is co-funded between both Donegal County Council and Limavady Borough Council. This service which is now entering its’ fourth year links Magilligan point and Greencastle. Indeed it is expected that the one-millionth passenger will travel on this route this year. Mr. Martin added that “the service on the Foyle compliments the service on the Swilly in that it allows visitors travelling across the Causeway Coast into north Derry to hop from one peninsula to another as part of a wider touring route. This was acknowledged by the Interreg 111A programme which provided funding both to Donegal and Limavady Borough Councils for the development of touring routes across the North Antrim/North Derry and North Donegal linking West Donegal and the Islands right through to the Causeway Coast. This initiative, the Atlantic Drift, was launched last week in Buncrana, and is set to provide an informative ready-made touring route for visitors to the region on a cross-border basis,” Mr. Martin stated.
The importance of the tourism industry to Donegal cannot be understated. Donegal County Council this year alone invested some €1.5 million into a range of direct and indirect projects supporting the tourism sector in the county, bearing in mind the numbers employed in the industry and bearing in mind our own comparative advantage in this particular sector. The two ferry initiatives on the Foyle and the Swilly were just two of these initiatives with other examples being Donegal International Airport, the up-coming Fleadh Ceoil, support for various Marine and Leisure initiative projects including capital developments, various festivals and events and direct contributions to statutory and local tourism development and marketing organisations such as North West Regional Tourism Organisation and Donegal Tourism Limited.
End
For further information please contact:
Anne Marie Conlon
Communications Officer
Donegal County Council
Tel: 074 91 72574
Mob: 087 9192275
Email: amconlon@donegalcoco.ie
The following can also be contacted for their contribution to the relaunch of the Lough Swilly Ferry Service:
Name Position Contact Details
Cllr. Philip Diggin Chair of Buncrana UDC 074 93 62825
Mr. Patrick McLaughlin Chair Buncrana ChamberOf Commerce 074 93 63550
Ms. Angela Crerand Rathmullan Enterprise Company 087 2480132074 9158129
Cllr. Denis McGonigle Chair Inishowen Electoral Area 074 93 74607
Cllr. Ian McGarvey Chair of Milford Electoral Area 074 91 51039
Lough Foyle Ferry Company 074 93 81901