Alan Kelly
Question:360. Deputy Alan Kelly asked the Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht when service blocks along the River Shannon around Lough Derg will be fully opened by Waterways Ireland. [14997/20]
View answerTuesday, 14 July 2020
Questions (360)
Written answers
Waterways Ireland continues to reopen facilities on the Shannon Navigation based on guidance from Government and relevant health professionals, in order to protect its staff, stakeholders and the wider community. It is aware that the restriction of services and facilities impacts on the ability of users to enjoy the waterways.
All measures are being taken to support the national effort in keeping people safe, protecting staff and everyone who visits or lives on and along the Shannon Navigation.
The Agency will continually review such measures in light of direction and advice from Government and health professionals and any further decisions on service provision will be communicated via the issuance of Marine Notices and will be posted on its website and social media platforms.
As part of its COVID-19 Response Plan, Waterways Ireland has prepared a Roadmap which has been shared externally on its social media platforms. It has indicated that service blocks would remain closed until it is assured it is safe to re-open them. This was predicated on Health & Safety advice from within the Agency taking account of broader public health guidelines.
Waterways Ireland considers service blocks to be potentially high risk infectious areas. Mitigation of this risk, to protect all users, involves increased cleaning routines combining deep cleaning and higher frequency of daily cleaning. There are ten service blocks along the South Shannon (of which four are operated with local authorities – Mount Shannon; Dromineer; Portumna and Coosan) and five directly-managed in the north Shannon. At peak season these are cleaned twice daily.
Following the re-opening of the waterways, the Agency is experiencing record cruise hire bookings in addition to pent-up demand from private boats accessing the waterways in a reduced seasonal window.
Waterways Ireland is working diligently to facilitate user needs whilst managing the risks. Following engagement with users, the Agency has decided to extend its lock opening hours from Monday July 20th 2020.
Waterways Ireland is reviewing its service provisions protocols in relation to the re-opening of service blocks and it is expected this review will be completed by the end of the week.