Mary Fitzpatrick (Fianna Fail)
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I thank the witnesses for attending and for all the work they do to preserve what is an incredible heritage feature for us, natural and built combined, namely, the canals. They are incredibly special. I was struck by the €600 million figure. We cannot put a price on the value of the canals and our wider waterways. Waterways Ireland is the custodian of them, as is, equally, everybody who uses them. It has a statutory role, but the people who live on and use our canals have an interest too. I am a frequent user of the canals in Dublin city. I just love them. We all need to work together to preserve and protect them and to ensure our canals and other waterways are sustained. Whatever else we might disagree on, I believe we all agree on that.

I apologise that I had to leave the meeting earlier, so I may have missed the answer to my first question. Is there is going to be a phasing-in of the changes? There were a couple of specific examples. The representatives from the Royal Canal Amenity Group mentioned the changes relating to marine isolation transformers, which I am not familiar with but which, I understand, will be critical for toilet systems. There was reference even to what sounds like an NCT for barges. Is there going to be a phasing-in period for these changes? I assume there will be. If so, do we know what that timeframe will look like? How will it be determined?