Cathal Crowe (Clare, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Recently the Dutch ambassador came in here to meet some representatives of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Transport and Communications, and a few of us travelled to the Netherlands. We asked them how can they maintain all of their water channels routinely and every day of the year. The man we asked said he would find out and get back to us. We expected a big volume of a report but the answer is very simple. There is a Dutch policy that stipulates only one side of a river can be designated a special area of conservation, SAC, or have protected status and they alternate it, so it can be the left bank, then the right bank and so on. The policy also allows their drainage contractors and their State bodies that deal with drainage to have access all year round. I know this is a whole different debate but I would like to hear about this from the Minister of State.