The directors of the Foyle Ferry Company and politicians from Derry and Donegal are due to meet today to look at the possibility of the Greencastle to Magilligan service resuming in the near future.
Long-time campaigner for funding for the service, East Derry SDLP MLA John Dallat pointed out the Lough Foyle service was the only one which did not receive support.
The Strangford ferry service is run directly by the Department of Regional Development and receives financial support in the region of £2 million a year while the Rathlin Ferry service is supported by European funding.
The Foyle Ferry Company received some financial assistance from Donegal County Council and Limavady Borough Council which has apparently has ceased.
Since it came into operation 12 years ago, the Greencastle-Magilligan ferry has carried more than two million passengers.
The six directors of the company have received no dividend whatsoever for their investment and that is patently unfair.
Mr Dallat said: “The Department of Regional Development in the past ducked its responsibility by pointing to out-dated legislation which does not allow it to fund services to ‘another jurisdiction’ – something Conor Murphy, the Sinn Fein Minister of the day, was asked to change but his department declined.
“It is very annoying that 15 years into the Good Friday Agreement it is not possible to find a paltry few pounds to fund an essential cross-border ferry service yet £15 million pounds has been spent to date policing a loyalist protest in Belfast.
“It seems to me that anything in the North West has to be fought for be, it the modernisation of the railway between Derry and Belfast, the badly-needed upgrade of the A5 and A6 roadways and just about everything else.”
“This meeting which I am attending together with councillors from both sides of the border needs to persuade the directors of the Foyle Ferry Company that they have the determination to sort out this issue once and for all.”
Mr Dallat concluded: “If it is failure, then we will be the laughing stock of the entire European Union which is pouring millions of pounds in a TEN-T programme ‘The Motorways of the Sea’, which is designed to connect the member states to improve trade and tourism.”
A ferry service from Buncrana to Rathmullan, also operated by the Inishowen-based company, has ceased after it failed to acquire funding from Donegal County Council.
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