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DELAYS IN ISSUING of landing permits on Skellig Michael for the upcoming summer season could lead to a “lasting damage” to tourism in the area.
James Murphy, Chairperson of the Skellig Coast Tourism Network (SCTN), said they “urgently” need the government to issue the permits, as it would put businesses and the community at “serious risk.”
“The failure to confirm permits for the 2025 season risks serious and lasting damage to businesses, livelihoods, and Ireland’s reputation as a world-class tourism destination,” he added.
The Office of Public Works (OPW) has said that a legal issue related to the permits is ongoing.
“This competition is now subject to legal proceedings and as such the Office of Public Works cannot comment,” the agency said.
The island was scheduled to open 10 May, but the operators remain without the necessary permits.
Skellig Michael is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, with early Christian monastic foundations dating to the seventh century. It is located about 12 km south off the coast of Bolus Head in County Kerry. The island also featured in the recent Star Wars trilogy.
To visit the island, landing permits are issued to boats to bring visitors to Skellig. In previous years, the landing permits were limited to 15 operators that could bring a maximum of 180 visitors to the island daily.
SCTN, which represents 120 tourism businesses across south Kerry, said there has been no “clarity” for the 2025 season, which has lead to “widespread alarm” amoung businesses and visitors.
The organisation warned that the delays could lead to disruption in the bookings to visit the island, financial damage to businesses in the region, and “reputational harm” to Ireland in the global tourism market.
Paul Devane, Owner of Skellig Michael Cruises, one of the 15 operators, said it would be “detrimental” for the area if they were not permitted to bring people to the island.
“It’s big for the local economy, lots of businesses are dependent [on the boats].”
He also said that even without the landing permits, they can take people in ferries to see the island, but they cannot land to allow people to walk on the island.
Making the journey to the island by boat is a weather dependent activity. Devane said there’s an average of 90 days a year that the boats can bring visitors to the island.
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The unions doing a sterling job of absolutely zero, as usual. Union dues paying high wages for those at the top, but little help for the actual membership
The majority of these staff members are on working visas, Indians Turkish, south Americans , These companies treat these staff as despensible zero hour contractors . No rights good luck . Irish government let this happen.
@Big Beats: also they don’t pay any tax here and only moved from US to Ireland head quarters to avoid US taxes and not pay any here. they are generally a terrible company supported by fffg
@Big Beats: There are so many inaccuracies in this comment, it makes my brain hurt!
” … jobs in Ireland being advertised on Accenture’s website.” So it’s either:
1. They want to hire staff at cheaper rates, or
2. Their HR people are clueless.
(And it’s probably both).
@Earth Traveller: 3. They are DIFFERENT JOBS
@Earth Traveller: Or, there are areas within the business that they are cutting while still hiring for other departments. And those impacted by the layoffs can apply for the open roles. Standard enough practice in business.
The next 5 articles are comments closed / including bizarrely an article on Covid – has anybody in the journal got any legitimate reason for closing comments on a COVID article – hmmm how times have changed eh
@Dave Hammond: actually a total of 11 of last 18 journal articles are comments closed – that’s just ridiculously poor – is there any standard or editorial there controlling the flow of articles to be sure at least some are open for comments / the journal is bizarrely bringing on their own decline if they keep closing comments on articles at this level / it’s one of the few unique features they have as an Irish media organisation , kinda idiotic business imo
@Dave Hammond: week said Dave..nobodies allowed to disagree with the articles anymore or point out untruths.. the Harris article is typical… was updated to include an extra paragraph pushing Drews agenda as being in the best public interest… covid is a minefield these days.. the rainbow crossing?? I dunno anymore… sure what else is it…. the journal keeps getting worse and I keep reading the crap on it for some reason..
@Dave Hammond: you know you can post what you want when you want on a multitude of platforms and you’re not limited to the comments section of the journal?
@Anthony Curran: the journal is very popular and influential and when they print an article skewed in one direction in some people’s minds, they should be able to counter the argument or let their opinion be known in the comments section.. after all isn’t that what the comments section is for… asking people to search for other forums that won’t be read by a fraction of the people isnt a great solution ..
@Dave Hammond: why don’t you comment on another news site. Ohhh you can’t. I’m sure we’ll miss you.
@Anthony Curran: Yep I figured that ingenious piece of insight out all by myself – 12 years ago when I originally started posting comments on the Journal -when they didn’t close comment sections for every second or third article – try keep up will you…
Years ago as a grad student, Arthur Anderson now Accenture as a newish company, were doing the milk round recruiting. I asked them what is it they made, they said we make nothing – just money and planning. When all you do is count other people’s money and get well paid for it, we can expect more of these shenanigans.
@The Irish love this shy….: It’s called “Consultancy.” There are many business sectors that don’t “make” anything, e.g. Accountancy, Finance, Law. They provide what’s known as “services.”
@Iano C: Consultancy mehole. To who? Those who have it to waste it? That’s not sustainable. Not much of a service to nearly 1500 dumped workers now is it? And that’s only for the moment. If you work in this job my advice to you is to start retraining.
@The Irish love this shy….: maybe consultancy doesn’t suit you, but it certainly suits a lot of employees and/or contractors who can make a lot of money doing it. Lots of companies pay lots of money for these services. Whether they get value for money is another matter.
@Iano C: haha, on fire tonight
@SYaxJ2Ts: Fire is right. Consultancy on the whole is tech reliant in Ireland. With the exception of Intel which is manufacturing and even that has 133% dip in earnings compared to last year. Intel won’t invest anymore here. Already we’ve lost to other English speaking countries like Germany! Watch this space for your consultancy fatties. If you’re into this polite chatting with excel documents, you and Iano should set up your own firm. Warehousing on the Kylemore Road going cheap. Best of luck.
@The Irish love this shy….: Hmmmm, tech reliant, eh?! PWC, KPMG, Deloitte, and EY might beg to differ.
@SYaxJ2Ts: Not too shabby yourself ;) Yer man’s having a conniption over facts!
@The Irish love this shy….: you asked that question as a grad student?
CN I ask why the journal mods are turning off comments on a lot of posts lately? Absolutely no need for it. I got a comment removed because I said drew Harris should be sacked. As mods and by deleting my comment they are more or less in league of the government. Sorry for of topic comment
@Alan Scott: you don’t have to apologise for being “off topic” anymore – they close so many comments these days you need to speak out wherever ya can imo !
So it turn out letting right wing parties base our entire economy on foreign multinationals isn’t the best idea.
If only we’d had some previous experiences in this regard.
Oh wait, it’s the 1980s all over again.
At least our Green Party – quote unquote – is still able to get us a few dozen jobs guarding servers in the endless new data centres they’re signing off on.
@Chris O’Brien: FDI in Ireland is a huge part of our economy, like it or not. It’s nothing like the 80′s, ya mad yoke!
Jesus, an article that you’re allowed comment on!! Becoming like hens teeth! Lol
@Colette Kearns: hence my comment just above yours. It’s not real journalism. I was of it for a while and came back to see if anything changed, twitter is a much better outlet where government sponsored propaganda and are not penalised when you disagree with them.
@Colette Kearns: it’s beyond comical Collette – for the life Donne I can’t understand the Journal at all these days – literally making their own business less and less engaging which will lead to a decline in revenues and bring on inevitable down turn for their own business – bizarre
Unions…. In Ireland, total waste of time. Apart from the teachers unions, they’ve managed to get their longer standing members a great deal over the years. The nurses union seem an undercover group acting on behalf of the HSE/dept of Health.
@Eddie Garvey: agree in the main but there are plenty of strong unions that have secured good conditions for their members , Irish rail , Dublin bus , RTE , ESB , airline pilots , I’d say the fact we don’t hear too much about them is a sign they have secured good deals and use their leverage accordingly imo
There should be no employment without union membership..bosses will always abuse workers in the past, now and in the future. This is why Trump is the last true Socialist.
People before profit are all talk and band wagon jumpers
@Chief Of police Retired – Truther MAGA Trump 2024: Trump the billionaire 1% who inherited hundreds of millions from Daddy and doesn’t pay his suppliers ….hmm you might want to do a bit of research to educate yourself of the facts mister
@Chief Of police Retired – Truther MAGA Trump 2024: https://www.liunachicago.org/about-us/news/details/2147/anti-union-actions-by-the-trump-administration
Corporations and banks are the enemy of the people. Making the rich richer, while the comman man is fleeced to death, but told we never had it as good.
Stop voting for politicians who support this.
@GoodBrother: Yeah, I agree. Let’s get rid of all the corporations and banks. Back to tilling the land, 16 hours a day, 7 days per week! And storing our money under the mattress. Who do you suggest we vote for to make this utopia you speak of, a reality? It wouldn’t be SF by any chance now, would it?
Challenging and difficult for people, but not for AI. The Unions may actually have a future, but are they able to see it?
I meet coupe of Spanish guys working there on new year’s eve party
“What do You do there”
“watching Netflix”
@transik: Cool story, never happened.
Another multinational on the way out. Nice one ffg,
@calum Tierney: Who do you think brought them here in the first place? FF. And they’re hardly “on the way out.” It’s a percentage of their workforce, not all of it
welcome to America
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