Michael McNamara (Clare, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Greenways are a success story and have the potential to be an even greater one. In general, tourism in Ireland is a success story. A significant number of tourists come to Ireland but their visits tend to be concentrated in exactly the same places as were popular with tourists in Victorian times. There are various campaigns, such as Ireland's Hidden Heartlands and so on, to try to disperse tourists and get them to consider other areas, with a degree of success. Greenways have significant potential to disperse people across the country and develop a new type of tourism. The Minister of State, Deputy Butler, is present. The greenway in County Waterford is a success story, and there are others. Waterways Ireland has developed a greenway running from Dublin to Athlone. It will continue from Athlone to Galway, dipping south through Portumna, Woodford, Gort and Kinvara and across the Slieve Aughty mountains.

I wish to focus on a particular greenway of which the Taoiseach is aware. Eoin O'Hagan of Tourism East Clare previously brought it to his attention. It is the Limerick-Scarriff greenway, running along the banks of the oldest canal in the country, namely, the Errina Canal, and from there skirting to Parteen Weir and then along the River Shannon up to Scarriff. It is an exciting project in an area that needs an injection of tourism. There were a lot of tourists in east Clare when I was growing up but there are fewer of them now. I celebrate the success of places such as Lahinch, Kilkee and Spanish Point but it is clear there is an imbalance.

We need to maintain a balance and we need to grow tourism in other parts of the country too. I believe this has the capability to do that, not only in and of itself and but also because, as I mentioned, the Athlone to Galway greenway will dip south through the Slieve Aughty mountains, which means it will go through the parish of Scarriff at Loughatorick, some 11 km from the village of Scarriff. There is an obvious potential to link them up, which would mean that one could walk or cycle along a greenway from Dublin to Kerry via east Clare, or from Galway Bay to Kerry via east Clare. That is hugely exciting.

There is a pinch point, however, at O'Briensbridge. It is ironic, really, because it is a village that was effectively bypassed by the Shannon scheme. It is a beautiful village but one that needs investment and tourists coming into it as it would have had historically. That pinch point is the ESB and Parteen Weir, which is a fantastic project that I saw as recently as this morning. It is something to which tourists would flock. The ESB has said that it cannot have a greenway with tourists going along its embankment. That may be the case. It may have legitimate concerns. If the civil engineering capability existed 100 years ago to harness the River Shannon, the civil engineering capability exists now to overcome this minor point. I ask the Taoiseach to make sure that Waterways Ireland and the ESB work constructively together to overcome this to ensure there is not an obstacle to what is a hugely exciting project for east Clare and beyond.

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