I am grateful for the opportunity to speak on this important matter. The presence of the Minister for Arts, Culture and the Gaeltacht underlines its importance and I am delighted he could attend.
I urge the Minister to continue with the feasibility study for the Ulster Canal as quickly as possible. My main interest in the canal derives from its heritage and tourism aspects. When one looks at tourism figures for Ireland one sees that County Monaghan has always propped up the list. The county is always at the bottom of the earnings league in the tourism sector. There is good reason for that. Monaghan does not have flagship projects which can be used to attract tourists. It has no major selling point. It has beautiful countryside with its drumlin hills and valleys and a myriad of lakes, most of them small. We have what we call a mountain, the Bragan Mountain, which most people would call a hill. For those reasons, the Ulster Canal project can make an enormous impact in Monaghan. That is why we are so interested in it.
Some people might say the money spent on the canal would be a waste and should be spent on land drainage or something similar. Though not very widespread, there is a school of thought in Monaghan town that there is a conflict between the canal and a proposed inner relief road in so far as the routes of the canal and the inner bypass for the national primary road cross. There is, therefore conflict in Monaghan town about the location of the canal as regards an inner relief road. However, the Minister will agree that this is not an insurmountable problem. Having drawn his attention to it, will he ask his Department to examine the issue to ensure the canal is not in conflict with the development of the inner relief road which is essential to the town of Monaghan?
I have been selling this idea for some time and had a little problem doing so initially. People did not immediately appreciate the potential value of that canal to the town. Monaghan, as an industrial area, is heavily dependent on traditional industry and does not have any modern information technology industry. Many of the industries it has do not have a high added value either. However, good employment is being given and most of it is generated from our own resources — natives doing their thing and employing others to help them do it. We are brilliant at that.
There are many visionaries in Monaghan who would be of the same mind as the Minister with regard to the development of the canal. It has some wonderful features. It links the Erne system through Clones and Monaghan town to the doorway of Belfast. It is truly a cross-Border project. If the Minister could rebuild this canal he would do a wonderful job for County Monaghan and neighbouring counties north of the Border as well. A water link would be established between the important Erne system and Lough Neagh. It would put us in Monaghan in a position where we could sell the county as a tourist resort. Many people in the county are working extremely hard — the hotel owners, the B&B operators, the guest house owners — and are making a living and employing substantial numbers of people in tourism, but they do not have a wonderful selling point such as this canal. I hope the Minister's study is completed at the earliest possible opportunity so that we can see what the position is.
Bits and pieces of the canal can be seen around County Monaghan. Some of it still exists but, as it has been out of action for the last 90 years, it is natural that parts of it have been filled in and other parts broken up, but all the important elements still exist.
The canal was built in 1841, but there were many problems with it and it was closed for a period in 1860. The level of water in it was unsatisfactory from day one. In 1865, the canal was again closed for repair work. By the time it reopened, some important elements of it, such as the Ballinamore-Ballyconnell canal, had been abandoned. It was a catastrophe from the beginning; but, with modern technology and the will to achieve it, the canal can be rebuilt to give County Monaghan an opportunity to compete with other counties as a tourist resort. Given the way we operate in Monaghan without any flagship project, the Minister can be assured that it will make a huge return over the years on whatever investment is required. I look forward to his response as I know he appreciates how important it is to us.