Mr. Liam Finnegan:

First, we have a major objection to this €200. It is an afloat tax, so to speak. The committee has to get that, as it were. Waterways Ireland has lost its way from being a service provider, where it offers a service and we buy it. We have no problem with that. Let the fees be increased for the services - that is okay - but we are moving away from attaching a charge to an actual service. We are now being charged to be afloat on the river. If we are afloat for one day with our little cruiser, that means paying €200 for the day for the privilege. There is no differentiation between being on the water and enjoying it for 365 days and being so for one to three days with your family on a little boat. Instead of being the "no, no,no" brigade, so to speak, our view is we are gladly willing to pay for services. People could pay €100 per year for locks, bridge charges and all that and have unlimited navigation for that. There could be a small charge for a person who does one, two or three lock movements a year because of where they live, say on a lake. Those who use would pay and those who do not would not. Are we going to ask a person who lives by the river, who all his life has put out his lay and enjoyed a few days on the river, for €200 just to be afloat on the river and nothing else, not using a service like accessing locks, bridges or whatever but literally on the water? These people will be hit with €200 of a fee.

We are saying that instead of that, let us be real with charges during inflationary times. Remember that, since 2019, there has been a 16% decrease in boat movements on the River Shannon navigation. That is to do with hard times, with there being a bit of a dip in the economy and road diesel rather than agricultural diesel adding a lot to the expense and so on. Between 2019 and 2023, there has been a 16% decrease in actual lock movements, which is how we gauge activity on the river. We ask for this not to be killed off altogether by adding extra charges. We would be amenable to paying €100 per year to give access to everything and to it being tied to a service, and to a small fee for people who only do one or two locks. The idea of it being tied to a service is vital to us and not for there to be an afloat charge because you happen to sit on the water for a day. It being tied to a service is what we want. We think it is a reasonable proposal but it was not incorporated into these charges. We have an entity which is drifting from being a service provider to becoming a corporate entity with revenue-generating powers. That is the slide. It probably started with the previous CEO, a lady who came from the property management business, and it has continued like a landslide. It is slowly moving towards that.