Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State sincerely for his positive response and welcome that this project is being actively looked at again. I hope the environmental impact statement and other associated preparatory studies will be successful. Our local councillor in that area, Councillor John Paul Feeley, and I worked extremely hard to get investment at the Shannon Pot. Fortunately, through the Department of tourism and Cavan County Council, more than €6.5 million has been secured to provide and construct a major interpretive centre at the Shannon Pot. There will be a number of amenities, visitor displays and walking trails. This links in, as the Minister of State knows, with the Cavan Burren Park and also the cross-Border Cuilcagh Lakelands UNESCO Global Geopark. The extension of the navigation to as near Dowra as possible would fit in with the overall tourism development plan for the upper Shannon region. We are talking about projects that are of huge importance not just to Cavan and Leitrim but to the upper Shannon region and the entire Border region. I am very glad that some months ago the Minister of State's Department purchased thousands of acres of additional land to extend the unique, cross-Border geopark, of which Dowra is part. The village is quite near the Shannon Pot and would be excellent to have navigation as near to it as possible to ensure we maximise the potential of the massive resource that is the River Shannon.

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