A company which has operated the ferry to Inishturk Island, Co Mayo, for the last 10 years has brought a High Court challenge to the awarding of a €1.7m contract for the service to a rival firm.

Family-run O’Malley Ferries (Clare Island) Ltd, which also provides a service to Clare Island, lost out to Clare Island Ferry and Clew Bay Cruises Ltd when bids for a new five-year ferry contract were advertised last year by the Minister for Rural and Community Development.

O’Malley’s brought High Court proceedings claiming the minister infringed EU procurement regulations in the way in which the tenders were evaluated.

The firm’s managing director, Charles O’Malley, says the awarding of the contract to the rival firm will cause his company significant harm. The Inishturk to Roonagh pier accounts for some 60pc of his company’s revenue and may result in “significant redundancies” among O’Malley’s nine employees, he said.

The minister opposes the challenge.

On Monday, the minister applied to have the case admitted to the fast-track Commercial Court because the matter was urgent due to the fact the current contract will expire on June 7.

Jonathan Newman SC, for the minister, said there are 51 inhabitants of Inishturk and they cannot be cut off from the mainland. The alternatives facing the minister were that an emergency service would have to be put in place or there could be an early hearing of the case which could be dealt with in two days, he said.

Joe Jeffers SC, for O’Malley’s, said while he was neither consenting or objecting to the admission of the case to the fast-track court, there were a number of peculiarities about the case including that it took two months for the minister to deliver a statement of opposition to the challenge.

Mr Justice Denis McDonald said he was unimpressed at the “leisurely” way in which the minister met the case up to now.

He put it in for hearing at the end of next month but warned there was no guarantee of a judgment before June 7.