My Department is jointly responsible with the Department of Culture, Arts & Leisure in the North for Waterways Ireland, a North South Implementation Body set up under the British-Irish Agreement in 1999. Waterways Ireland has responsibility for the management, maintenance, development and restoration of certain inland navigable waterways principally for recreational purposes. The waterways under the remit of the Body are the Shannon-Erne Waterway, the Shannon, the Erne, the Grand Canal (including the Barrow Navigation), the Lower Bann and the Royal Canal. There are no proposals North or South to have private companies or community interests take over the management and operation of these navigable waterways.