Mr. Francis O'Donnell:

The ESB is required under law to make sure salmon and eels have free passage. However, some of the structures there were put in place were put in place 50 or 60 years ago. They are just not fit for purpose. Where there are major fish kills at those blockages, IFI would have a statutory remit. It is important to say that this conundrum has been here for quite some time. It was unsustainable. Over the past 18 months, we have worked very closely, through our parent Department, with some senior people in the Department of housing. We have just gone out to recruit a head of barriers. We also intend to take on 12 additional people next year, and 36 over three years. It is not that we are not focused on enforcement; we are more focused on finding a solution. We have been given a significant capital budget as part of the service level agreement with the Department of housing. Our plan initially is to take staff on for three years. There will be 36 people in four teams of engineers and specialists in this area, including our own research department, which will do the research on hydromorphology and the ecosystem benefits from that. To be fair to both agencies and to the Department of housing in particular, they are very committed to doing this. They did not have the expertise in this area.

We have a significant amount of expertise on barrier mitigation but we never had the resources or personnel. We have that now. There is a commitment and a memo has gone to Government on this issue. A concern I would have is that it is one thing doing it for three years but this is a 40- to 50-year programme. We have little barriers in rivers that are just little concrete lips that are causing the same problems throughout catchments. Take the Dodder, for example. I do not know how many barriers to fish passage are on the Dodder system. That is repeated all over the country. There are thousands; about 70,000 in total. It is a long-term thing, but we are getting into that space now. Whoever is successful in getting the position will recruit a full team over the next three years.