Alice-Mary Higgins (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome that the Minister is willing to accept the amendments which have been put from all sides of the House in respect of the 90 days. That willingness to engage and extend that consultation period will absolutely expedite and make it much easier when we approach the next section.

On the maintenance of the canals, in the proposed section 5(1)(a)(i) to be introduced to the 1986 Act, it states, "navigation in such parts of the canals as are open to navigation from time to time". An area can very quickly slip from being an area that is open to navigation to one that is not, and then it is no longer required to maintain navigation in it. There is a bit of a chicken and egg dynamic within the way that section is currently phrased. That is why the amendment we, Senator Ó Domhnaill and others have tabled clarifies the maintenance of navigation. We should not be rolling backwards. It is actually adding value there. It states really specifically that we should maintain the navigations that we have at the moment. We should not have situations arising where an area becomes not open to navigation and slips off the agenda.