Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 18 February 2014
428. Deputy Kevin Humphreys asked the Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht if he will intervene with Waterways Ireland to prevent the Naomh Éanna docked in Grand Canal basin from being sent for scrap for a period of six months in order that a proposal (details supplied) can be considered and developed; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [7698/14]
View answer432. Deputy Sandra McLellan asked the Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht if he will intervene and allow a 16 week reprieve for the heritage vessel, Naomh Éanna, while an interested group prepares a business plan for its restoration at no cost to the Exchequer. [7833/14]
View answer442. Deputy Éamon Ó Cuív asked the Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht if he and his Northern Ireland counterpart have raised the issues of the possible preservation of the vessel the Naomh Éanna with Uisce Bealaí Éirtann; if they have the response they received; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [8312/14]
View answer448. Deputy Sandra McLellan asked the Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht if he will intervene and allow a 16 week reprieve for the heritage vessel, Naomh Éanna, while an interested group prepares a business plan for its restoration at no cost to the Exchequer. [7796/14]
View answerI propose to take Questions Nos. 428, 432, 442 and 448 together.
As the Deputies will be aware, the Naomh Éanna was purchased by the Irish Nautical Trust (INT) and moored at Grand Canal Dock in 1989, when it could no longer meet health and safety requirements to operate as a passenger-carrying vessel. A report on the hull condition of the vessel, commissioned by INT in April 2013, highlighted serious safety concerns. Based on the report’s findings, INT issued a ‘Notice to Vacate’ to both of the businesses that had been operating from the vessel.
The Deputies will also be aware that Waterways Ireland, given the health and safety concerns arising from the condition of the vessel, offered, as the property owners of the Grand Canal Dock, to arrange for the removal and disposal of the ship on INT's behalf. I am advised that INT accepted the offer and confirmed its approval to Waterways Ireland to dispose of the vessel on its behalf on the ground of the health and safety risks arising.
Unfortunately, the position is that the Naomh Éanna has deteriorated substantially in the past 20 years and presents a real risk in the Grand Canal Basin. I understand that significant investment would be required to bring the vessel to the point where it would be safe and insurable. Accordingly, to mitigate the risks, Waterways Ireland proposes to move the Naomh Éanna to an adjacent dry dock, under a short-term licence agreement with NAMA, from where it will be dismantled under contract. The vessel’s condition will not support its movement out of the Dock and I am advised by Waterways Ireland that this is the only practical way of ensuring the vessel does not sink in the main Dock, thereby giving rise to considerable additional expense. I am also advised that extensive works, entailing considerable additional costs, would be required to preserve the already unstable hull of the vessel.
Deputies will recall that a commitment was given in this House last Thursday that a meeting would be convened of the accountable bodies in this area, including my own Department, Waterways Ireland and other relevant bodies, to determine if anything can be done to avert the disposal of the Naomh Éanna at this time. I wish to inform the House that meeting took place but concluded that the proper course of action to be taken now is to proceed with the disposal of the vessel. This will now be done. Accordingly, I am advised that it is not feasible to allow an opportunity for 16 weeks or six months as proposed for any interested group to provide a plan that would attract investment in the vessel's restoration.
This decision has not been taken lightly. Rather, it is because of the continuing serious risk posed by the vessel, the disruption and expense that would be involved were it to sink in the Grand Canal Dock and the very considerable expense that would be involved in making it safe and insurable.
