Ms Dawn Livingstone:

First, I will comment on abandoned boats. Under the current regulatory framework, if one pays for the combined mooring and passage permit, at a price of €126, one finds it is cheaper to abandon one's boat than to remove it. The charge is not very high but there is a need for control and for people to register their boat and pay their fees. We have been removing sunken and abandoned boats over the past eight years. We spent €178,000 on this, and the process is ongoing. There were two sunken boats removed from Shannon Harbour in February 2014. Therefore, it is an issue. There is no charging on the other waterways but on those waterways boat owners pay to put their boats in a private mooring. The other delegates can verify this. Putting a boat in a private mooring requires a fee that could be between €400 and €1,000. This system does not exist on the canal so there is not the same management framework. It has been cheaper to abandon one's boat. Boats got to the point where they changed hands in pubs at night and nobody knew who owned them. They are abandoned and we are clearing them. I have photographs of the types of boats we are removing. As I stated, we manage through co-operation. Ours is a recreational authority. We are removing boats as a last resort. The type of activity in question is dragging the canals down, as those who live close to them will know.

The board is not a matter for the body but for the North-South Ministerial Council.