The latest in a series of gaffes to have beset the lifeline ferry service, payments were only accepted in the foreign currency until yesterday, despite sterling being legal tender in the UK.

When the News Letter contacted Cork businessman Ciaran O’Driscoll, who runs the ferry, almost a month ago about the anomaly, he insisted that by the following week customers would be able to pay in sterling.

But on Monday travellers booking on the website were still only able to pay in euro.

Local DUP MLA Mervyn Storey, who raised concerns about the currency issue, said that it was “totally unacceptable” that the ferry had refused to accept sterling on its website for so long.

Mr Storey said: “I welcome the fact that the website reflects that sterling is our currency rather than the euro.

“But we should never have been in this position

“We should never have allowed someone who was operating in Northern Ireland to put on their website that tourists and islanders could only pay in euro.”

A spokeswoman for the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Investment’s Trading Standards Service said: “There is no legislation which specifically states that prices for services must be displayed in sterling.

“However, the absence of a sterling price may, in certain circumstances, be considered to be a misleading omission under the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008.

“In relation to goods (products), the Price Marking Order (Northern Ireland) 2004 requires the selling price to be in sterling.”

She said that traders wanting to accept foreign currency had to also give an indication of the selling price in that currency, together with details of any commission to be charged.