Seanad Éireann debate -
Wednesday, 19 Feb 1997

Vol. 150 No. 3

Adjournment Matters. - The Ulster Canal.

Mr. Cotter

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.

Minister for Arts, Culture and the Gaeltacht (Mr. M. Higgins)

Tá fíorchaoin áthas orm gur tugadh seans dom labhairt ar an ábhar tábhachtach seo agus tá mé buíoch don Seanadóir. I have listened with interest to what the Senator had to say and am pleased to have this opportunity to respond. I appreciate the sensitivity of the subject, the feeling with which he spoke about Monaghan and his anxiety to have it develop.

The general issue of the development of canals is something of a chicken and egg situation. When investment in canals is raised, some ask if we have demonstrated a tourist use of them. However, tourists cannot use them if they are not developed and the argument proceeds from there. My Department is fully committed to the development of the inland waterways of this island. The Government, with the assistance of the European Union through the Regional Development Fund, has provided over £22 million for the waterways development programme in the period 1994-9. One should think about that: £22 million spent over five years creates an opportunity for a new kind of recreation amenity for heritage and tourist use.

Before dealing specifically with the subject of this debate, I wish to inform the House of the current status of the waterways programme. To date, the Grand Canal has been substantially upgraded and improvement work on the Barrow is proceeding. Work on the Royal Canal is also continuing with a view to having it opened to the Shannon by the year 2000. At present, it has been rewatered for over 90 per cent of its length. Although it is not yet open to navigation, it is widely used for fishing, walking and canoeing. It will be noticed from that the multi-purpose recreational usage to which our canals are being put. We have retained consultants to design the seven bridges between Mullingar and the Shannon and plan to commence construction on the largest of these, at Mullingar, in the autumn. When these bridges have been constructed, a major section of the linked waterway network will have been put in place.

The Senators are well aware of the attraction of the Shannon. It is our premier waterway and has been a major tourist attraction since the 1960s. The boat hire market continues to expand each year. To help this development, we are continuing to invest in new destinations and enhanced facilities along the Shannon. This year we are extending the navigation through a new canal towards Boyle, County Roscommon, along the River Suck to Ballinasloe, County Galway, and carrying out major developments in Limer ick city in conjunction with Shannon Development and Limerick Corporation. Outside the connected network, we also have projects starting in Tralee and Galway this year which again will add to the tourism attractions in both locations.

In 1994, the connection between the Shannon and Lough Erne was reopened. Formerly known as the Ballinamore-Ballyconnell Canal, this waterway was renamed the Shannon Erne Waterway as it linked the two best known waterways on this island. The growth in the traffic through this waterway has exceeded all expectations and there were times last summer when it was running at practically full capacity. The area through which it flows has benefited from the increased tourist revenues and I compliment the local people who are so enthusiastic about the waterway and have facilitated and guaranteed its success to date. The completion of the Shannon Erne Waterway allowed the connected network to be expanded further and visitors can now travel from Dublin to New Ross, Limerick and Enniskillen by water.

When the Royal Canal is completed, the last major unnavigable section in the interconnected network will be the Ulster Canal. This canal is situated in the counties of Armagh, Fermanagh and Monaghan. It was originally constructed in the early part of the 19th century at a total cost of £232,000. It provided a navigable link between Lough Neagh and Lough Erne thereby connecting the northern system of waterways to the southern network, including the Shannon. It never carried a great deal of traffic and has in fact been disused since 1929. Since its abandonment, it has gradually deteriorated and is now in a very derelict condition. Adjoining landowners have filled in long sections of the waterway and many bridges with very little headroom were unfortunately constructed in times when people were not as far sighted. Water supplies to the canal have been diverted to the extent that it is now virtually dry in the summer. However, long stretches of the canal in the counties of Fermanagh and Monaghan are intact, although heavily overgrown with trees and scrub. I confess to a great sense of sadness at the idea of a waterway being abandoned and a sense of excitment as we turn again to making it live again.

The canal is over 70 kilometres long, contains 26 locks and is traversed by 84 bridges. Towns and villages served by the canal are Charlemont, Moy, Blackwatertown, Benburb, Caledon, Middletown, Monaghan, Smithborough and Clones. The canal cross section is quite narrow except in the reach near the River Finn. The top width of the canal was about 10 metres or less. Where the canal is built along drumlin contours it is much narrower, being partly cut into the upper slope of the drumlin and embanked on the lower slope. There are several sections, embanked on both sides where the canal is carried at a higher level than the adjoining lands.

In a scoping study carried out jointly by the authorities on both sides of the Border three major areas of difficulty were identified. First, there is a lack of headroom at the bridge on the M1 motorway over the River Blackwater downstream of its confluence with the canal. Second, there are problems associated with the canal through Monaghan town where there are a number of low level crossings over it. The Monaghan inner relief road also encroaches on the canal and there are some buildings built partly on the line of the canal. My staff have already been working on the resolution to this problem and we will continue to do so because it is not a choice between one or the other or beyond anyone's imagination to construct a solution.

The third problem identified was the securing and maintaining of an adequate water supply to the canal. However, many of the original bridges, locks and aqueducts were of sound construction, a monument to the wonderful craftspeople who built them. Those that have survived interference or alteration, and there are several, are generally in good condition, although much overgrown with trees and silted up. It is now proposed to undertake a full scale feasibility study which will endeavour to identify solutions to these difficulties and will also include a cost-benefit analysis and an environmental impact assessment of the project.

The waterways service of my Department and the rivers agency of the Department of Agriculture in Northern Ireland set up a steering group to oversee the project, with the rivers agency taking the formal role of the client on this occasion. The study was advertised in the national press and the EU journal late last year and expressions of interest were received from over 90 firms. Over 30 of these submitted more detailed proposals at the next stage of the process and these are now being assessed. A detailed brief for the study has been prepared and this will be sent to the selected firms for their detailed proposals and pricing. When this has been completed the contract for the carrying out of the feasibility study will be awarded. It is expected that the study will last for about ten months and it should be completed by early 1998. The waterways service's contribution to the study is being supported by INTERREG II. Funding for the restoration itself will be considered in due course in the light of the findings of the feasibility study.

Restoring the Ulster Canal would provide a navigation for cruisers and pleasure craft between Lough Neagh, Lough Erne and the Shannon system. On the Erne and linked Shannon system there are over 3,000 pleasure craft of various types. The reopening of the Shannon-Erne waterway has considerably enhanced the appeal of both the Shannon and the Erne as well as adding attractive destinations to each. The extension of the Erne navigation to Lough Neagh would again link all the connected waterways of this island and increase the potential of the integrated network for tourism, leisure and development and for the use of the people of the area.

This feasibility study is another example of the excellent co-operation between the waterways service of my Department and its counterpart in Northern Ireland, the newly established rivers agency of the Department of Agriculture.