An Aran Islands ferry company is in the midst of a High Court battle against the Department of the Marine which has been criticised for increasing charges for use of Rossaveal harbour by eightfold, resulting in crippling bills.
Island Ferries Teoranta, a company controlled by Paddy O’Brien and his family, is seeking a number of High Court declarations, including that the new charges imposed since 2003 are unreasonable, discriminatory, and unrelated to the cost of running the harbour.
According to reports, the Minister for the Marine, the Minister for Agriculture and Fisheries, and the State have been accused of being in breach of competition and EU law by abusing a dominant position in the market for the provision of harbour facilities. Island Ferries is also seeking declarations that one of its vessels was wrongfully detained when it refused to pay new charges and it is now seeking damages in relation to this.
It has been claimed that the Minister for the Marine made an order in 2003 under the Fishery Harbour Centres Act 1968 resulting in an eightfold increase in annual charges. The payment was changed to €1.20 each passenger instead of the previous flat rate for each vessel.
On June 30, 2005, Island Ferries received a bill of more than €200,000 because of the change in the charges. The average bill for previous years had been around €23,000. The court heard the Department had then threatened to withdraw the operating permits of Island Ferries unless €100,000 was paid by July 18, 2005, but the company objected to paying on the grounds that the payment was unlawful. Permits for two of Island Ferries’ five vessals were withdrawn by the Department. One vessal, Ceol na Farraige, was later detained and it was not released until a €200,000 bond was paid.
