Mr. John Sydenham:

I have been involved in other committees, as the clerk to the committee will confirm. The Chairman has outlined the central problem, which is that each Department or entity gets an allocation to carry out certain works. Once an activity falls outside of that allocation, there is a problem. There is no mechanism for situations like this which would allow us to go straight to central government, make the case, and get funding. That is the problem in a nutshell. Previous speakers have outlined the complexity. It is not as straightforward as going in and repairing the weir. There are many consents to be secured and EU regulations to be got around. As is the case for many things, a solution and a way forward can be found, but that will bring us to the ultimate challenge, which is finding the money. Perhaps the stakeholders should get together and make a joint application to Government seeking funding for this. Our people did some assessment of the condition of the weir. As Cork County Council outlined, we does not know what will be found or what it will cost once we get in but it will be reasonably expensive to get this done properly. The ultimate question is where we get the money. That is the challenge.