Dallat: “Throw away shackles of partition and fund Foyle Ferry Service”

SDLP East Derry MLA John Dallat has expressed disappointment after the Regional Development Minister revealed to him that Stormont will not fund the Foyle Ferry Service because the legislation doesn’t permit it.

Mr Dallat said: “This news was not entirely surprising as I had asked the previous Minister for Regional Development, Conor Murphy, to initiate the necessary changes to the legislation to allow funding and he refused.

“His department claimed the Magilligan-Greencastle Ferry Service went to another jurisdiction! In recent years I have travelled in Eastern Europe, including Bosnia and Croatia where some of the worst genocides in modern times occurred and in each case ferry services are operating at full capacity while our ferry service remains tied up in Greencastle.

“It really is amazing that 91 years after partition, and 14 years into the new Assembly, our connectivity in this ferry service might as well be back in 1921. It really is time for Belfast and Dublin to throw away the shackles that are being used to stop progress and jointly fund this service.”