Eamon Scanlon (Fianna Fail)

I am grateful for the opportunity to raise this issue which has continued in my area for the past 30 or 40 years over which time we have tried to have the river drained, then cleaned to make it accessible for tourism, fishing and water sports. The matter might have been more relevant to the Office of Public Works but recently the Minister of State with responsibility for that office, Deputy Parlon, met a deputation from Sligo County Council and the committee involved in the drainage of the river. Unfortunately we did not get on very well, to put it mildly.

Sligo County Council has made small amounts of funding available, between €20,000 and €30,000 per annum for several years. The Owenmore drainage committee has done great work even with this small amount of money. In the early 1990s it received a substantial grant from the then Minister, Hugh Coveney, which was spent on major work at the time. The river has been improved over recent years. If we can secure funding from any source the Minister for Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs, Deputy Ó Cuív, is prepared to match that funding under the CLÁR programme which would finally solve the problem of the river.