Mr. ?anna Rowe:

Again I thank the Senator for the questions. There are 17 local authorities, from Carlow right up to Cavan and from Limerick right up again to Leitrim and we have directly engaged with all 17. We have written to them all and have offered the local authorities the opportunity to have representatives from Waterways Ireland in with their elected members to discuss the by-laws and the other issues. We also have a really good structured approach to engagement at official level with the local authorities. We meet the local authorities, that is, the chief executives and their senior teams once a year at the beginning of every year to discuss areas of mutual concern, mutual development, etc. During phase 1, we had direct consultation, that is, a presentation and discussion with four local authorities and in this phase, we already have had two. We also have some more where the councils have invited us in to present to them. We have to be invited in to present to local authority members and when it comes to the feedback, all the meetings with the local authorities have been open to the public and are recorded and in the main, we have received really positive feedback from the local authorities. Our colleagues in Offaly had put a motion down asking the Minister to take various steps in respect of the by-laws.

When Waterways Ireland engaged with them on a one-to-one level recently, they welcomed our deepened, broadened engagement and the provisions within the by-laws. The Senator is correct; it is important that Waterways Ireland discusses these matters with the local authority members and officials. Not only has Waterways Ireland discussed these matters with the local authorities, but it has reached out to the chambers of commerce, to recreational leisure organisations and to other representatives of boaters.