Shannon Development Denies Kilrush Marine Claims

Business & Finance - Farming & Fisheries

Thursday, 17 November 2011 13:08

Written by Eibhir Mulqueen

Shannon Development has denied allegations from a local business group that a marina it is seeking to sell in Kilrush, Co Clare, is unsafe for navigation and anti-customer.

The marina, whose original construction cost overrun was investigated by the Dáil Public Accounts Committee, has been run by the regional development agency for the past 21 years but Kilrush Chamber of Commerce now wants local businesses to take over its management.

The marina is the only one being run by a public body in the country and has been up for sale to a suitable private operator for some time. But the Chamber report concludes a sale is unlikely given the current economic conditions.

The Chamber has submitted an action plan to the semi-state body, stating that sailors are confined like prisoners and customers are being lost due to the operating times of the lock gate system for the 120-berth facility.

“Why are nearby competitors full to capacity, yet Kilrush Creek Marina pontoon berths are consistently 60% unoccupied?,” the report asks.

The plan calls on Shannon Development to fulfil its remit to develop flagship projects for less-developed areas in the region and create demand for Shannon Airport. “There is no other northern Europe marina into which you can sail in the early morning and be back in New York in time for lunch on the same day,” it states.

The report is critical of the “unsafe reality” of actual depths at the marina entrance being “considerably less” than the marked chart depth of 2.7 metres and channel marker buoys “in some instances considerably out of position”.

“The maintenance of a clear dredged channel in the marina is critical, not only for customer access purposes but also for customer health and safety,” it states.
Shannon Development stated that depths were monitored annually and maintenance and dredging were carried out as required.

Channel markers were for guide purposes only, a spokesperson added, and a permanently-fixed main marker buoy and shore marks were the true navigational points to guide sailors into the lock gates.

The Chamber report adds that restricted access to the marina is “completely anti-customer” and “a confinement which even prisoners in their jail cells are not regularly subjected to”.

“Sailing in the clear, fresh air of dawn or on a moonlight night is one of the great attractions of sailing. If, however, sailors/marina customers are berthed in Kilrush Creek Marina, this experience is denied them,” the report’s author, Randal Counihan, a member of the Kilrush-based Royal Western Yacht Club, says.

Shannon Development stated that the marina management had not received any formal complaints from customers regarding their inability to enter or leave the marina basin. “The lock gate departure times have been agreed between marina management and customer representatives.” 

The 20-year-old marina’s construction costs were investigated by the Dáil Public Accounts Committee in 1998. The marina – a scaled back version of the original plan – cost the State £6.55 million to construct in the late eighties, 70% more than its envisaged cost of £3.8 million. A planned £3.2 million tranche from the private sector never materialised.

It states that the Shannon Estuary is an incredible but under-utilised resource for boating that, at 500km2, dwarves Cork Harbour, “which lays claim to being the second largest natural harbour in the world”.

It calls for the development of the marina as a centre of excellence for marine tourism and recreational activities, saying that 100 new jobs could be created directly through boatyard industries, an interpretative centre to complement the local dolphin-watching industry, sail training and the development of the tourism potential of the Scattery Island monastic site, which lies one mile offshore.

It describes the current boat and OPW-operated tour guide system for the island as “extremely hit and miss”.

The Chamber presented the action plan to the regional development authority earlier this month and had, what it described as, “a very positive discussion” with chief executive Dr Vincent Cunnane, who has requested that the mooted projects be prioritised in order of importance.