RESTORATION OF THE ULSTER CANAL FROM CLONES TO UPPER LOUGH ERNE

At the North/South Ministerial Council (NSMC) Plenary meeting in July this year, the Council agreed to proceed with the restoration of the section of the Ulster Canal between Clones and Upper Lough Erne in the light of the Irish Government's offer to cover the full capital costs of the project.

It was also agreed that Waterways Ireland, the North/South Implementation Body, will be responsible for the restoration of this section of the Canal and, following restoration, for its management maintenance and development principally for recreational purposes.

The full capital cost (estimated at €35m/£23.8m) of the project will be met by the Irish Exchequer with annual maintenance costs on the completion of the project, in the order of €300,000/£201,000, to be met by the Northern Ireland Executive and the Irish Government.

At a NSMC Inland Waterways Sectoral meeting in Ballyconnell, Co Cavan in October, Edwin Poots, MLA, Minister of Culture, Arts and Leisure and Éamon Ó Cuív, T.D., Minister for Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs agreed that Waterways Ireland should appoint a single entity consortium to design and construct the restoration of the Clones to Upper Lough Erne section of the Ulster Canal.

In addition it was agreed that Waterways Ireland will establish a project team for the day to day management of the project which will report monthly on progress to a Monitoring Committee chaired jointly by the Department of Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs and the Department of Culture, Arts and Leisure.

At the Ballyconnell meeting, Ministers stressed that good local liaison will be key to the smooth running of the project and noted that Waterways Ireland will engage with all key stakeholders in taking forward the project; and they welcomed Waterway Ireland's intention to put in place a targeted marketing programme during construction to highlight the attractions and uniqueness of the Clones to Upper Lough Erne stretch of the Ulster Canal.

Representatives from Waterways Ireland recently met with groups from Clones including the Clones Erne East Partnership, Clones Regeneration Partnership, Clones Town Council and Clones Development Society, to discuss what had been agreed by the NSMC. Waterways Ireland confirmed that it will appoint a project manager and that it will be a single design and construct contract.

Since the beginning of 2008, Waterways Ireland has appointed an in-house project manager to progress this project to completion. A preliminary design contract is proposed to take this project through the planning phase and a prior information notice for this work has been placed in the European Journal. The construction phase of this project will be a single design and construct contract which will be progressed on completion of the planning phase. Waterways Ireland has commenced advising the landowners along the route of the proposal of the general outline of the proposal and the likely time frame of the various actions.

- Ends -

Further information from:
Ms. Aoife Morrissy, Marketing and Communications, Waterways Ireland,
00 353 71 9650787 or 00 353 87 9918412.

Date: 20.12.2007

PR07017