Charter boat skippers have warned the Government they will go out of business if Fáilte Ireland continues to exclude them from Covid-19 related supports offered to the tourism sector.
As The Times Ireland edition reports today, at least 100 boats around the coast offering wildlife tours, whale watching, and sea angling trips are seriously affected.
Afloat's Tom MacSweeney reported in January the issue of how boats are excluded from State COVID Support because they are mobile.
“When tourism recovers, there won’t be vessels there for Fáilte Ireland to direct visitors to, and valuable marine expertise will be lost,” the association chairman Donal Kennedy warns.
He says his members are “beyond frustration” at a recent response from Minster for Tourism Catherine Martin, in which she told the association that eligibility criteria for supports were a matter for Fáilte Ireland.
“And Fáilte Ireland is telling us its hands are tied and it is a matter for government, which seems to have forgotten this is an island,” Kennedy says.
Covid-19 related tourism industry supports initiated last year excluded many boat owners and coach operators as they did not have fixed premises.
Last month, Fáilte Ireland introduced grants for businesses that were not eligible for the Government's Covid Restrictions Support Scheme (CRSS).
Its new tourism business continuity scheme was tailored for outdoor activity providers, tourism golf courses, hop-on hop-off bus tours , cruise hire companies, campsites and boat tours operators.
However, most charter skippers were once again not eligible, as most earn below the minimum annual turnover of €50,000 required for applicants.
In a letter to the association, Martin said that the turnover threshold was “based on the likelihood that, for businesses with a turnover of less than €50,000, non-payroll fixed costs will be sufficiently low to enable the owners furlough the business by availing of other state aids”
“We are unable to make enough income to cover our operating costs, not to mention make a living, due to Covid-19 restrictions, as our operating costs can range anything between €8,500 and €10,000,” Kennedy said.
Charter skippers’ association eastern representative Eamonn Hayes, who owns one of ten vessels operating out of Kilmore Quay, Co Wexford, said that the fleet had been able to put to sea for three months last year.
“We ran trips to the Saltee Islands and for sea anglers, but at 50 per cent capacity – and our annual berthing fees cost around €2,500,” Hayes said.
“Our charter fleet attracts thousands of tourists to the south-east coast in normal years, and I cannot understand how the Government cannot recognise the value of this,” he said.
“The pandemic unemployment payment will pay for household bills, but not for a business with annual maintenance costs of between €8,500 and €10,000,” Hayes said.
The recreational angling sector is valued at 850 million euro annually, and sea angling accounts for about 40 per cent of overseas angling tourism in normal years with an annual estimated value of 29 million euro, according to Fáilte Ireland.
The Department of Tourism said that operational issues are a matter for Fáilte Ireland.
Read more in The Times here
