{"id":442560,"date":"2026-05-11T02:28:12","date_gmt":"2026-05-11T02:28:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/442560\/"},"modified":"2026-05-11T02:28:12","modified_gmt":"2026-05-11T02:28:12","slug":"cork-commuter-ferry-dead-in-the-water-for-now-but-french-connection-will-start-in-june","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/442560\/","title":{"rendered":"Cork commuter ferry dead in the water for now \u2014 but French connection will start in June"},"content":{"rendered":"

Aidan Coffey, the chief executive of Portus Greenway Ltd, trading as Harbour Link, said that the decision to halt the proposed all-electric ferry was caused by Cork City Council\u2019s decision to commission a study into river usage in the city.<\/p>\n

Mr Coffey also cited Cork City Council\u2019s plan for the construction of three new bridges across the River Lee as a complicating factor.<\/p>\n

New Cork-Boulogne ferry<\/p>\n

Mr Coffey is CEO of the unrelated Hibernia Line ferry operator, which announced the launch of its its new service from Ringaskiddy to Boulogne-sur-Mer in France<\/a> new service from Ringaskiddy to Boulogne-sur-Mer in France last week.<\/p>\n

\"HiberniaHibernia Line’s head of onboarding Helen Rogers, CEO Aidan Coffey, and captain Paul Roche at last week’s announcement of the new ferry route between Cork and France which is scheduled to begin in June. Daragh McSweeney\/Provision<\/p>\n

This time last year, Harbour Link said it was in the advanced stages of planning for the all-electric ferry project, which the company hoped would carry up to 1.5m passengers annually.<\/p>\n

At the time, Mr Coffey said he hoped to submit planning applications within a year, with the first all-electric ferry envisaged to be carrying passengers by early to mid-2027.<\/p>\n

Now, however, Mr Coffey confirmed that the proposed service \u2014 which would be Cork Harbour\u2019s first passenger ferry service in more than 100 years \u2014 would not be happening any time soon.<\/p>\n

Aidan Coffey now focusing on French ferry<\/p>\n

Speaking to the Irish Examiner, Mr Coffey said that he had decided he needed to devote his energy to the launch of Hibernia Line, but added he hoped to one day revisit the idea.<\/p>\n

\u201cCork City Council \u2026 are doing a river usage study, although they\u2019ve planned three bridges across the river, but now they\u2019re doing a river usage study,\u201d said Mr Coffey.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe just have to take our time and let them do their due process and get the river usage study out of the way, and then of course we will look to maybe come back at that again.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr Coffey conceded that he had not applied for a marine area consent (MAC) from the Marine Area Regulatory Authority (Mara), which would be the first step in the planning process.<\/p>\n

\"PreviousPrevious passenger ferries in Cork included rowboats bringing GAA fans to and from Tivoli and the Marina near the then Cork Athletic Grounds in 1959. Picture: Irish Examiner Archive<\/p>\n

Under the Maritime Area Planning Act 2021, a MAC granting the right to occupy a defined area of the sea and seabed for a designated purpose, must be secured before any planning application is made to An Coimisi\u00fan Plean\u00e1la or the coastal local authorities.<\/p>\n

\u201cUntil we see the result of the river usage study, there\u2019s just no point,\u201d Mr Coffey said.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne has precedent above the other, and even if we go to Mara now, they\u2019ll just tell us wait for the river usage study.\u201d<\/p>\n

A council spokesperson said: \u201cThe publication of the [river usage study] does not affect the need for or prevent an MAC application through Mara.\u201d<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for Mara said that the authority does not discuss individual applications.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Aidan Coffey, the chief executive of Portus Greenway Ltd, trading as Harbour Link, said that the decision to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":442561,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[176868,4257,79,61,60,43,16456,2738],"class_list":["post-442560","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-travel-family-holidays","tag-cork-business","tag-cork-news","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news","tag-public-transport","tag-transport"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/442560","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=442560"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/442560\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/442561"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=442560"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=442560"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=442560"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}