The UK Prime Minister has said that the market is the "best placed" to deal with financial difficulties faced by the Harland & Wolff group.
The British government, as previously reported, said it decided not to offer financial support to the troubled east Belfast based shipyard group over concerns of losing taxpayers’ public money.
With its four shipyards, the multisite company, is part of a consortium that secured a major contract to build three new Fleet Solid Support (FSS) ships for the Royal Fleet Auxiliary (RFA), as H&W had applied for a £200 million loan guarantee from the government.
The RFA serves the requirements of the Royal Navy in terms of bunkers (fuel), supplies, and aiding in disaster relief and emergency evacuations.
This loan was to form as part of the yard’s efforts to restructure the finances of the company that, aside from Belfast, has two yards in Scotland (Arnish and Methil) in addition to England at the Appledore facility.
The government, however, decided not to proceed as a guarantor on the lending, in addition to ruling out direct funding to maintain the Belfast based group’s liquidity.
More RTE News reports on the story.
