Salt water runs through the veins of the O’Malley family that operates O’Malley Marine Plant Ltd of Clare Island, Westport, Co Mayo. Building Ireland caught up with company director Charles O’Malley who gave an insight into the day-to-day operations of the ever-growing concern.
The family-run O’Malley Marine Plant Ltd owns and operates specialist cargo vessels, workboats, crane barges, survey vessels, anchor handling, crew transfer vessels and vessels for the deployment and retrieval of all types of buoys (e.g. weather, navigation aids etc) that can be used in the support of dredging, windfarm, fishfarm and the general marine civil engineering industries.
Brothers Charles and Gerard O’Malley also own and operate Malley Ferries (Clare Island) Ltd., The O’Malley family are natives of Clare Island and have been seafarers for many generations and three fully licensed ferries, the “Naomh Ciaran II”, “Tormore” and “True Light”, provide year-round links between the Mainland and Clare Island and Inishturk Co. Mayo.
“O’Malley Marine Plant was only set up last year,” explained Charles O’Malley in conversation with Building Ireland. “We were just getting busier and busier in that type of work so we decided to purchase more vessels to help us meet the demand for our services.”
O’Malley Marine Plant Ltd’s impressive fleet of vessels is suitable for the following services: Anchor handling, Carriage of rock armor, Dredging support, Transfer of fuel and freshwater to other vessels, Transfer of cargo and equipment with vessels own cranes and bough loading ramp, Personnel transfers, Deployment and retrieval of buoys, Tanker hose handling, Dive support, Hydrographic survey, Crane barge, Fishfarm services and Marine civil engineering support.
The decision to set up a dedicated Marine Plant company has proven to be a wise one as the Clare Island, Westport, Co Mayo-based company and its 10 employees have plenty of work to keep themselves occupied these days.
The Marine Institute (deployment and retrieval of weather buoys) and Commissioner of Irish Lights (channel marker buoys maintenance and service, crew transfer, water transfer) are two of their many valued clients.
Their exemplary track record of successfully completing jobs on time and in budget has stood them in good stead. For example, they provided support vessel, crew transfer, cargo transfer and fuel transfer to Cunningham Civil & Marine on the Kish Bank Lighthouse restoration project.
They are currently assisting MJS Civil Engineering (Wicklow) on a Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council coastal project at Seafield, Shankill. They are shuttling loads of limestone varying between 3.5 to 5 tonnes apiece from Arklow Port to the Corbawn Lane Beach Access and Coastal Project Improvement Works located at Shanganagh Cliffs.
“We also have two vessels on hire up in Donegal assisting to carry out an under water survey of Lough Swilly on behalf of Irish Water,” Charles revealed. “We’ve also had a lot of work on surrounding islands (Clare Island, Inishturk and Aran Islands) in the last six months with various road making, construction and ESB works.”
Safe to say then that there are no regrets about the new venture…
“We are very happy with how things have gone since we set up the company, we are very busy,” Charles responded. “I would say that 90% of our work has come from referrals and word of mouth. Clients that we have carried out work on behalf of appreciate the fact that we always stick to the price that was originally agreed. If we give a price, we always come in on budget and on time.
“And. if we say we’ll do something, we commit to it and do in on time. Myself and Gerard were brought up on boats. We’ve been out on boats since we were 5, 6 years of age and salt water runs through our veins. When others say it can’t be done, we do it.”
He continued: “Our biggest challenge is the weather because we are so exposed in what we do. Getting good lads into marine work is another challenge. We tend to pick local lads we know and train them up. As a relatively new company, we are working hard at getting work in general and, in turn, getting our name out there. But it has very much been a case of so far so good.”
Not content to rest on their laurels, Charles and Gerard have ambitious plans for expansion in the future as they look to continue to satisfy their clients’ requirements.
“We are after buying another boat, a 14m work boat, recently while down the road we are looking to add to the plant and machinery at our disposal,” Charles stated.
O’Malley Marine Plant Ltd are available for work throughout Ireland and the United Kingdom. Call Charles or Gerard at call at the numbers below to chat about your requirements.
O’Malley Marine Plant Ltd
Prospect
Westport
Co. Mayo
Mob: (086) 600 0204 / (086) 887 0814
Email: [email protected]
Website: www.omalleymarineplant.ie
Taken from Building Ireland Magazine, July, Vol 5 No 7
