Vol. 476 No. 1
69 Mr. Dempsey asked the Minister for Arts, Culture and the Gaeltacht the amount of money spent on the restoration of the Boyne Canal in 1996; the proposals for expenditure on this canal in 1997; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [6375/97]
There was no expenditure on the restoration of the Boyne Navigation in 1996.
The Deputy is aware that I provisionally allocated £2 million for the restoration of the Boyne Navigation in 1994. However, following the preparation of a preliminary inspection report on the feasibility of restoring the Boyne Navigation from Ruxton Lock, Navan to Tiernan's Lock near Old-bridge, the Waterways Service of my Department advised that the restoration would involve expenditure of the order of £24 million.
In view of that, I initiated a study to determine the feasibility and cost of restoring a limited stretch of the waterway from Slane to Staleen. While that study will not be completed until the end of this month I understand that the cost of the works would be in the region of £6 million to £8 million. In those circumstances and in context of the mid-term review of the EU Operational Programme for Tourism 1994-99, it is obvious that the provisional allocation of £2 million would be totally inadequate to restore, even partially, the Boyne Navigation. The Deputy is also aware that there is a difficulty at present in relation to the title of the Navigation which has not been resolved.
In these circumstances the £2 million originally allocated has been assigned to other waterways projects included in the current programme.
