I have listened with interest to what the Senator had to say and I am pleased to have this opportunity to respond. As the House will be aware, 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. Before dealing specifically with the subject of this debate I would like to inform the House of the current status of the waterways programme.
To date, the Grand Canal has been substantially upgraded and the improvement work on the Barrow is proceeding. Works on the Royal Canal are 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. Even though it is not yet open to navigation, it is widely used for fishing, walking and canoeing.
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.
Senators are aware of the attractions of the Shannon. It is our premier waterway and has been a major tourist attraction since the sixties. The boat hire market continues to expand each year. At the end of January there were 2,675 registered boats on the Shannon navigation. Five hundred and twenty five of these are hire cruisers which bring over 50,000 boating tourists to the waterways. To help the development of this resource 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 Limerick city in conjunction with Shannon Development and Limerick Corporation. We are achieving a better result by co-operating with these organisations. We also intend to commence the planning stage for a number of new facilities along the Shannon, including Ballyleague, Shannonbridge and Grange.
Outside the connected network we also have projects starting in the Tralee Ship Canal and Galway's Eglinton Canal 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 must pay compliments to the local people who are so enthusiastic about the waterway and whose attitude have guaranteed its success to date and in the future. The completion of the Shannon-Erne 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 has been completed the last major unnavigable section in the interconnected network will be the Ulster Canal.
It is now proposed to undertake a full scale feasibility study, in conjunction with the rivers agency of the Department of Agriculture in Northern Ireland, which will endeavour to identify solutions to the many difficulties involved in the restoration of this canal. The feasibility study will include a cost benefit analysis and an environmental impact assessment of the project. At present a number of shortlisted consortia are preparing their tenders and the contract should be awarded early in the summer.
Early last year I had the pleasure of joining Senator Mooney at the reopening of the navigation to Lough Allen and I am pleased to report that 754 cruisers visited the lake in its first season. The waterways service of my Department carried out major dredging works at the entrance to the lake to open the navigation channel. The lock and service blocks at Drumshanbo are, without doubt, some of the best facilities available anywhere on our inland waterways and are a credit to the craftsmen and local specialist firms who were engaged in its construction.
The lock between the lake and the canal is of special interest as the water level in the canal downstream varies very little during the year while the lake level can vary by over three metres. As a result the lake level varies from well above the canal level to well below it and so a double lock had to be constructed. This lock is in fact equivalent to two separate locks — one set of gates is used when the lake levels are high and the other set when the lake levels fall below the canal level. The Senator will be also be aware that the waterways service spent over £1.5 million on restoring this navigation.
At the outset it was decided to provide safe haven moorings at two locations. The locations referred to by the Senator were selected and floating moorings provided purely as places of refuge for boats in bad weather as the lake is quite long and there were no sheltered locations where boats could tie up in difficult conditions. It was not envisaged at that time that these refuges would be linked to the shore in the short term. However, the waterways service has now recognised that the linking of the refuge at Spencer Harbour to the land would be useful and there have been discussions with a local landowner with a view to obtaining access to the shore and purchasing the necessary property. This location is the most sheltered location for boats and is therefore the ideal location to link to the shore. Following agreement on the land purchase my Department will then have to carry out site investigations to ascertain the ground conditions between the refuge and the land. In the construction of the original refuge near Spencer Harbour the ground conditions were very bad and very deep piles had to be used to anchor the floating pontoons.
As regards the second location, the waterways service will be examining locations for access to the lands on the northern side of the lake. It is unclear at present if linking the refuge at the location referred to as Cleighranmore on the Shannon navigation charts is the best solution. One or two other locations will also be examined before a final decision is made. In the spirit in which Senator Mooney raised this matter, his request will be examined by my officials to see what is the best solution.
However, it is unlikely this second facility will be provided under the current programme, but I assure the Senator we will continue to examine locations on Lough Allen with a view to providing further land access. I intend to maximise the drawdown on spending on waterways. Rather than embark on a project to which cannot be finished, if I think the delay is long or interminable I will move it to other projects which have been evaluated, hence there is merit to our evaluating the maximum number of options.
Finally, I would like to say that I welcome the clear inference in the Senator's motion that the ongoing work of the waterways service is of economic benefit to the local community. In recent years my Department has invested heavily in the North Shannon region, and in County Leitrim in particular, and I welcome this opportunity to put on record my Department's commitment to the continuing development of the Shannon navigation.
