Friday, 10 th December 2004

EXPORT & TOURISM CHIEFS RAISE CONCERN ON FERRY DISPUTE

Uncertainty for Thousands of Irish People Planning To Come Home For Christmas

The Irish Hotels Federation (IHF) and the Irish Exporters Association (IEA) today urged for speedy resolution of the Irish Ferries strike to avert the negative impact it is having on the success of Irish tourism and trade. The two representative bodies voiced their grave concerns at this unjustifiable action by SIPTU which jeopardises essential services, threatens jobs and inconveniences 100,000 travellers on the route to Ireland over the Christmas period. They stressed that the grounded ferry service would lead to serious repercussions on Ireland’s successful inward tourism and exporting sectors if a breakthrough in the dispute is not achieved quickly.

Both organisations stressed that Ireland as an island nation could ill afford such a substantial gap in its essential transport infrastructure, given the highly competitive EU tourism and trade environments. It is unacceptable that that an essential service can grind to a halt without exploration of all avenues provided by the State to resolve disputes being utilised. The singling out of Irish Ferries by SIPTU for this action is totally unwarranted and is not justified given that dispute resolution procedures were not followed by SIPTU and fully exhausted prior to industrial action being taken.

The IHF stated that all Irish carriers by air or sea should be allowed to operate in a commercial and competitive environment and no one should have the ability to cut off a crucial national transport link without all mechanisms available for discourse being employed. It added that this dispute would have negative ramifications on the tourist sector’s most important market, the UK, where one third of the 3.7m visitors travelled to Ireland by sea last year.

“The dispute gives uncertainty to Irish people living in the UK and the Continent planning to drive home with their families for Christmas festivities. In addition, it sends a highly negative signal abroad to potential tourists as an unpredictable sea service influences people to rule out Ireland for their 2005 holiday. Ireland aims to attract up to 6.7million overseas visitors to Ireland in 2005 and we know that one in six visitors representing some 1.3 million people annually travel to Ireland with their families in cars and camper vans by sea. Any question mark or doubts about the reliability of ferry transportation into Ireland will mean that these visitors will simply choose another country over Ireland,” says John Power, Chief Executive, IHF.

"Irish exporters rely on sea freight services to deliver 80% of their export sales to customers in the UK and the European mainland.  Fast, reliable multi option sea freight services spread throughout the day seven days per week has been an essential element in the growth of Irish exports over the past ten years. Forcing 25% of the sea freight capacity out of the market by SIPTU's dispute with Irish Ferries leaves many exporters vulnerable to missed delivery schedules and ultimately lost export business to Ireland.  Business which may be difficult to replace at a later time" stated John Whelan, Chief Executive of the IEA.

The modern top quality service provided by Irish Ferries is a vital access link from Ireland to Britain and Continental Europe and this link must be maintained at all times. The IHF and IEA call on all parties to end the stoppage and utilise all the dispute resolution facilities made available by the state.

FOR INFORMATION:

Siobhan Molloy / Niamh Boylan Tel: 01 6760168

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