Inishowen Councillor Johnny McGuinness has called for bye-laws at all of the Donegal’s small harbours to prevent avoidable tragedies.
The Culdaff-based councillor said the area of safety at Donegal’s piers and slipways needs to be regularised as a matter of urgency.
Speaking to Donegal Daily, Cllr Mc Guinness said: “I shudder to think that we could be visiting a tragedy where someone has lost a life due to lack of oversight at our harbours.
He explained: “Since Covid, the number of families doing outdoor activities has grown in popularity. There are so many activities at harbours, but there aren’t any a bye-laws in place at a harbour, then there is no actual way to enforce any type of proper safety.
“There are boats sitting on slips throughout the county and most of them are not anchored properly to a ball or ring, generally they are held in place in situ with a couple of stones behind a wheel. If some novice comes to launch their newly acquired pleasure boat and they have never reversed a trailer before, it is like they are threading a needle down between boats on a slip, and it doesn’t take any stretch of the imagination to see how easily boats can be dislodged.”
Cllr McGuinness raised his concerns at Tuesday’s meeting of the Inishowen Municipal District, calling for ‘common sense’ rules and regulations that are in place at Donegal’s larger ports to be replicated at small harbours. Regulations regarding jet-skis, anchoring and mooring vessels and speed limits approaching harbours are just some of those contained in the bye-laws for Donegal’s larger ports.
“There are bye laws at the larger ports, but for every large port, there are 30 or 40 smaller ports that are unregulated and therein lies the problem. We’ve had enough tragedy in Donegal here at our harbours,” Cllr McGuinness added.
The issue is set to be raised again at Roads and Environment SPC level within Donegal County Council.
