Mr. Alan Dunney:

There are three rivers running through Kildare - the Blackwater-Boyne, the Barrow and the Liffey. There is a drainage board for the Barrow, established under statute by the Barrow Drainage Act. The Blackwater is part of the Boyne drainage district maintained by the OPW. The Liffey, however, is not part of any drainage district. The river is managed by the ESB, in terms of the dams. There is a view that where a river is not part of a drainage district, the responsibility lies with the riparian landowner but that is not easy to determine on the River Liffey.