Ferry cancellations costly for local firms, says Minister

The Economic Development Minister says he'll be looking to find ways to avoid a repeat of the ferry situation seen before Christmas.

John Shimmin says the higher than usual number of sailings being cancelled has been costly to Manx businesses.

Many of the cancellations were due to a broken bow thruster on the Ben-my-Chree, which reduced its manoeuvrability whilst docking.

When asked about the economic effect of the cancellations in Tynwald, Mr Shimmin said the cost to the Island was quite considerable and that he'll be exploring all options to make sure it doesn't happen again.

The Minister also rubbished speculation that the Government had paid for the repair to the vessel [play clip]

 

John Shimmin MHK

Your browser doesn’t support HTML5 audio