Mr. Michael Barrett:

This area is what we call the Portaneena marina. The red line is the Waterways Ireland jurisdiction line. We had that measured by a cartographer who had worked in Ordnance Survey Ireland all his life and was highly qualified. He drew this up for us and we submitted it to both Westmeath County Council and Waterways Ireland and to date nobody has come back and contradicted it so we have to assume it is accurate and correct. Members also have his original statements. This marina has been built over many years but the southern end was built in 2006, 2007 and 2008. It came to our attention in 2012 that it was an unauthorised development and we brought it to the attention of Waterways Ireland, Westmeath County Council and the then Department of Communications Energy and Natural Resources. This part of the marina was well within the seven-year rule at this time so both Waterways Ireland and Westmeath County Council could have done something about it. Westmeath County Council took four and a half years before it brought an enforcement order against it. It went before the District Court judge who ruled it inadmissible on technical grounds because of the wording of the summons, not on the rights or wrongs of the development or the fact that the marina was legal or illegal. The county council has not come back to do anything about the enforcement of this area of the marina, which it could have done within the seven-year rule.

The rest of the marina has been built over a long period but it has clearly been built on Waterways Ireland property as anything outside of the jurisdiction line is Waterways Ireland property. Waterways Ireland has done nothing whatsoever about the marina even though it admits it is on its property. Why is Waterways Ireland not doing anything? Why is it not protecting the property of the people of Ireland? Why is it allowing an unauthorised marina to have been developed and run, generating a large amount of money, without doing anything about it? I would like to put another question to members of the committee, Waterways Ireland and Westmeath County Council. Planning legislation was used to take an enforcement order. Environmental legislation, which is very strong and does not have any statutory limitations, has not been used. Why? It is still an SAC and an SPA to this day under Irish and European law. Why has environmental law not been used to take prosecutions and to do something about it?

I want to introduce a series of Ordnance Survey Ireland photographs to members, which give a timeline for the marina. The first photograph is from a long way back; Mr. O’Sullivan will remember that time but some of the rest of us will not. This photo from 1973 shows where the marina is built today. This was a full ten years after planning legislation was introduced in this country. Some ten years after planning legislation was introduced there was a small dock here and nothing going out into the lake. It was completely clear and the lake bed and reed banks had no development whatsoever. The next photograph is an Ordnance Survey Ireland photograph that was taken in 2005. If members observe the southern side of the marina nothing was present and that is the area that has since been developed. I will now introduce a photograph from 2007 to members. Members can see the quayside wall on the southern side of the marina, which is about 120 ft. Thousands of tonnes of rock, armour rock and various other materials had been introduced by 2007. The next photograph is from 2009.