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THE NATIONAL TRANSPORT Authority (NTA) has issued notices to Irish Ferries ordering it to pay compensation to passengers affected by the cancellation of the WB Yeats services last summer.
The new vessel had been planned to join the Irish Ferries fleet last summer, but the company was forced to cancel thousands of bookings as “extraordinary circumstances beyond its control” led to the delay of the ship’s delivery.
The WB Yeats was to serve the Dublin-Cherbourg service from July but Irish Ferries flagged as early as April that it wouldn’t be able to fulfill a number of services.
Following an investigation, however, the NTA has said that it wasn’t satisfied the unavailability of the ship couldn’t have been avoided.
Irish Ferries has said it is “disappointed” with the NTA’s issuing of notices, and said it will appeal the matter in the courts.
Maritime regulation
After receiving correspondence from passengers, the NTA launched an investigation into the cancellations to see if it contravened European maritime regulations.
It said: “The Board of the Authority formed the opinions that Irish Ferries failed or is failing to comply with and has infringed or is infringing Article 18 and Article 19 of the Maritime Regulation on 19 October 2018 and authorised the serving of notices on Irish Ferries.
The Authority was not satisfied that the unavailability of ‘WB Yeats’ is an extraordinary circumstance hindering the performance of the cancelled passenger services which could not have been avoided even if all reasonable measures had been taken.
These notices direct Irish Ferries to pay compensation to impacted passengers who’d already requested compensation for the delay in arriving at their destination, and to passengers who incurred additional costs in travelling to/from Rosslare instead of Dublin or Roscoff instead of Cherbourg.
Irish Ferries has a period of two months to comply with the notices.
‘Every reasonable action’
In a statement this evening, Irish Ferries reiterated its stance that the cancellations were due to “extraordinary circumstances which were completely outside of the company’s control”.
“In dealing with its customers Irish Ferries believes it took every reasonable action to provide passengers with alternative travel options, from a no-quibble immediate refund to allow them to make alternative travel plans, as well as alternative sailings on the Oscar Wilde out of Rosslare Europort and Land bridge alternatives via the UK,” it said.
It also said that its ongoing discussions with the NTA regarding the interpretation of EU regulation had been a “critical factor” in its “regretful” conclusion that it will be unlikely to operate the Oscar Wilde to France out of Rosslare this year.
Irish Ferries also accused the NTA of contributing to making the route “commercially unviable” in the future.
It said it would be contesting these orders from the NTA in the courts, including the European Courts of Justice if needed.
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No one seems interested in the basic function of farming, creating food.!Any suggestions on what we should eat when all the rewilding is complete!
@Tommy Lennon: Nearly all the food we produce is exported though, so rewilding vast swathes of land wouldn’t affect our access to food.
@Tommy Lennon: Heather!! This hogwash is really going overboard. 5.2 Million people have to eat something!!
Few years ago they couldn’t give away enough money to reclaim land, bogs were drained, ditches bulldozed to make fields bigger now give more money to put it back, what next
@Andy Murphy: it’s as if priorities can change over time.
Mad, Ted!
@Ciaran Foster: or money changes hands ?
Totally agree. I bought the book from Eoghan back in December as a present but could not stop reading it.. great eye opener when walking around any nature area and looking at our human shaped environment.
Bought the book. Eoghan knows what he is talking about, we should listen
Lord save us from this stuff, so we return good farmland to the so called wild bush,
I have known so called farmers like this and they were to lazy to work their land and produce food, this was their cop out for not working their inheritance farm,
The boyo who wrote this article seems like one of them.
@Ned: You sound bitter. Were they “to” lazy to learn to spell also?
Every day I read or hear about another demand from the “Green Agenda”. Previously I would have considered myself environmentally conscious but I have rapidly become less so due to the polarised views presented.
More tree planting, ditch fertiliser (go organic) , drop bovines and ovines 20% in favor of grains and vegetables. Pay farmers to do so. Targets met… Simple..and it will be done.
Folks, do yourselves a favour and read his book.
Great book, highly recommend!
I’ve no problem to pay farmers to rewind their farms
But let’s house the homeless fix our health first eh?
We should change our approach to land use. A farm should be an inclosed area where sheep / goat / cows won’t go outside to graze on every little tree sapling. Same for sikka deer that has gone out of control in recent years. Nature and biodiversity has no chance in this country atm.
There are 8 Billion people on this planet that have to be fed every day and this idiot wants us to grow weeds. Enough of this nonsense. No matter what we do on this little island it will make little or no difference to global warming. We’re not the cause of the problem, but we could help alleviate the consequences.
@Liam Dunne: well we are the cause of the problem, rich countries like ireland are the ones who consume the most and produce the most carbon per capita, we still contribute to the overall problem
@Liam Dunne: It’s not about global warming, it’s about biodiversity. Read the article, then try reading some books.
We need all houses to be carbon neutral…citizens deserve at least cheap/free heating.
I’ve noticed a lot of hedgerows getting torn out of grazing fields near me over the last 2-3 winters.
It makes little sense, the farmer only gains a few square meters of space. Then any farm animals in the fields lose shelter from the elements during wind, rain & heat.
And of course nature loses its last piece of wilderness on the edge of the field.
Is there some sort of subsidy to do this sort of work or why is it being done?
So you want us to pay farmers to not work on the least viable part of their land. Sure.
@Dan Dare: they would need money to maintain fences to keep deer, sheep & goats off the land while it recovers.
Kill an extra quarter of a million cows a year and rewild as much land as possible . What will people eat if this goes ahead ? And there is no point in saying that we export most of what we produce as if that makes its consumption somewhere else on the planet irrelevant
Unbelievable, I grew up in a large farming community. Farmers are so so wealthy. The new generation of farmers are splashing the cash, massive mansions, big 4×4′s, new cars etc. Some small farmers may struggle a little like the rest of us. But the cash the big dairy guys are rolling in is unbelievable!
have your say