Mr. Francis O'Donnell:

Dr. Gallagher touched on it. It is probably not sustainable for individuals or even for small groups to try to undertake this type of work because it goes on for a long time and it is costly and strenuous. We have looked at this with the Department of housing. We have looked at all the pros and cons of this. With a barrier that is not complex, we are talking from start to finish of possibly three or four years by the time procurement, environmental surveys and so on are done. That is significant. With a difficult one where there are legal issues, we have been stuck in the mud for ten years with some of those issues. We will keep going with them, but we are looking at a 50 or 60 year programme here. There are many barriers to migratory fish stocks. With the best will in the world, we will build a professional team of environmental and engineering experts. We hope to have 36 within three years with the support of the Department of housing and our parent Department. That will leave us well placed but after that the capital works need to be done. We have found that some small barriers that were €100,000 have gone to €300,000 in recent years. With a number of barriers we will be at €10 million. It is expensive and people have to understand that.