A protest will take place in South Kerry this week to highlight the impact of delays in issuing landing permits for Skellig Michael.
This demonstration will take place in Portmagee on Thursday at 5.30pm and will see boats travel out and circle Sceilg Mhichíl.
The Skellig Coast Tourism Network (SCTN) is organising the protest to draw attention to what it says is the escalating crisis being caused by the delay issuing landing permits.
Late last year the Office of Public Works held a competition to award 15 permits to land passengers on Sceilg Mhichíl for this summer.
Two unsuccessful applicants have challenged this, while a third issued legal proceedings on May 8th.
Landings had been due to resume on Sceilg Mhichíl on May 10th, however, the High Court granted an interim order to one of the unsuccessful applicants and the case is due to be heard again on June 3rd.
The Office of Public Works says it can’t issue permits to the successful applicants until the legal cases are resolved.
The OPW has since lodged a motion before the High Court which, if successful, would allow it issue permits to successful Skellig Michael boat operators; this will be heard in early June.
This means no landings can currently take place on the UNESCO World Heritage site, and only tours around the islands are going ahead.
The Skellig Coast Tourism Network represents over 120 tourism businesses across South Kerry and the network is calling for immediate action.
The network claims tourists are cancelling trips to the area and that operators are losing thousands of euro as a result; the network wants temporary licences to be issued while legal proceedings continue.
