Hazardous algae on Bere Island pier slipway is accident waiting to happen

BY HELEN RIDDELL 

BERE islanders are fearful that the state of one of the main access slipways is an accident waiting to happen.  

The Council maintained slipway at Oilean na gCaorach on the western end of the island, suffers from a regular build-up of green algae, causing a hazard for pedestrians and vehicles who use the slipway to board one of the two island’s ferries.

Islander Eileen Murphy said she is constantly on the phone to the Council offices in Castletownbere requesting the slipway be cleaned.   

‘The Council should have a regular cleaning schedule in place for the slipway in that they come in once a month to clean it at low tide,’ said Eileen. ‘It’s dangerous, someone is going to fall and seriously injure themselves. Elderly islanders are restricted in their movements and I know myself, if I need to go to the mainland and it’s low tide, I will think twice and go at another time in the day when the tide is high and the mossy part of the slip is covered.  Our lives are being restricted by the state of this slipway.’

Eileen explained how there were two island-based Council workers who had retired and weren’t replaced. 

 ‘At first when they retired, the Council did maintain the slipway and clean it on a regular basis and then it just stopped for no reason.  Now we have to constantly ring to ask for it to be cleaned and unless something is done soon, someone will be seriously injured.’