Deal is reached in ferry dispute

Crew members locked themselves inside the Isle of Inishmore

A deal has been reached between management at Irish Ferries and union officials which will allow sailings between Britain and Ireland to resume.

The dispute centred on plans to replace 540 Irish Ferries employees from the Irish Republic with foreign workers.

The deal was brokered by the Labour Relations Commission in Dublin.

It is understood pay and conditions will be underpinned by a binding legal agreement and the company will be allowed to "re-flag" vessels abroad.

Negotiators from management and unions are expected to recommend the deal to the board and to staff.

Irish Ferries services are expected to resume again on Wednesday.

None of the company's three ships between Ireland and Britain have sailed since 24 November.

The dispute has also paralysed an Ireland-France service involving a fourth Irish Ferries ship.

Negotiations

A statement from Brendan Hayes, vice president of the Siptu union, said: "The union has been successful in ensuring that the threshold of decency has been defended and that vulnerable migrant maritime workers have the protection of Irish law.

"Siptu now calls upon the government to enforce and enhance our labour legislation so as to ensure that a situation such as that which occurred in Irish Ferries never happens again."

Eamonn Rothwell, chief executive of Irish Ferris, said the company was committed to restoring all of its services as soon as possible.

Negotiations at the Labour Relations Commission in Dublin resumed on Tuesday after the company threatened to cut a redundancy offer and take one of the vessels out of service if sailings did not restart.

The dispute began in September when Irish Ferries offered redundancy to a third of its workforce in order to replace them with lower-paid workers from central and eastern Europe.

It escalated more than two weeks ago when Irish Ferries crew members on the vessels Isle of Inishmore and the Ulysses barricaded themselves on board.

The ships have remained moored in Pembroke Dock and Holyhead respectively while the dispute went on.