Government owes taxpayers a more detailed explanation on why ferries are encountering problems after less than a decade of service, said Shadow Transport Minister Michael Dunkley.

According to Senator Dunkley, these questions need to be answered before more money is spent repairing or replacing ferries.

The Island's oldest fast ferries Serenity and Resolute were brought onto the Island in April and May of 2002 respectively, at a cost of $2.5 million each. Sen. Dunkley said these could "hardly be considered old" and added: "If the fleet is ageing faster than usual this is due to the poor upkeep and maintenance."

Junior Transport Minister Marc Bean said on Monday that as demand for ferry services continued to grow, Government's "ideal scenario" would be to look into acquiring a new ferry to support the public transportation system. The comment comes days after ferry staff downed tools in a dispute allegedly over maintenance issues on the vessels.

They are expected to return to work this morning, with the Ministry of Marine and Ports expecting full ferry service to resume.

However Sen. Dunkley said taxpayers needed more information on how the current ferry service was being operated before having to foot the bill for a new vessel.

He said information should be made available on the current demand for ferry services, how many hours a day each ferry runs, how much time is required for total proper maintenance, and what is the current maintenance budget. The public also deserves to know whether there has been overspend or underspend in this area and whether the maintenance budget will need to be increased, he said.

Sen. Dunkley said: "The Junior Minister mentions the acquisition of an additional ferry but since funds have not been appropriated in the Budget for 2010-2011 for a new ferry where is this money going to come from?"

He added: "In addition the Government, through it's proven poor record of fiscal management and control, owes the taxpayer a more detailed explanation before the spending of further funds."

The Royal Gazette posed questions to Government's Department of Communication and Information yesterday morning. We asked why maintenance issues were not addressed in a timely fashion, what were the numbers to back up the statement "the demand for ferry service continues to increase", and also questioned the average lifespan for such vessels.

By press time last night the questions were not answered.

Sen. Dunkley criticised Government for not predicting the challenges earlier and said: "Common sense or proper oversight of the operation would have predicted that maintenance issues will always arise if a vessel is in constant use and unable to be checked and maintained in the proper and required fashion.

"Government has continually tried to justify the large expense of the ferry fleet and trumpeted the success of the fast ferries.

"It is obvious that the taxpayer has footed a bill for millions of dollars and now, due to the fact that scheduling has not been planned allow for adequate maintenance, the taxpayer will be further burdened with the spending of additional funds to cover this gross oversight. The Minister responsible, Premier Ewart Brown, should be able to shed some light on how this was allowed to occur."

The Senator also questioned whether this "season's extensive usage requirements" were any different than in the past.

He said: "If so, why has this not been factored into the feasibility and reliability of the schedule going forward?

"Furthermore if maintenance such as mechanical, hull or aesthetic is not addressed in a timely fashion it is my opinion that there would be an increase of risk to the operator and the passenger."