Clare Daly (Dublin Fingal, Independent)
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304. To ask the Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht further to Parliamentary Question No. 648 of 21 March 2017, the powers to be given to authorised officers of Waterways Ireland; and the authority by which the said officers are regulated. [15153/17]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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The Heritage Bill 2016 includes provisions to amend the Canals Act 1986. The amendments to the Canals Act 1986 are primarily enabling provisions to allow for the making of bye-laws to regulate boating on the canals and to manage the use of the canals.

The 1988 Canal Bye-Laws have been in force for almost 30 years and need to be revised to reflect changes in the use of the canals over the intervening years. The proposed changes will allow Waterways Ireland to make new bye-laws to proactively manage the Royal and Grand Canals, as well as the Barrow Navigation.

The authorised officers’ role is set out in Section 7B of the Heritage Bill 2016.

Section 7 B provides for the appointment and powers of authorised officers for the regulation and management of the canals and canal property subsections (1) to (4). Subsection (5) sets out the powers of the Waterways Irelands authorised officers for the purposes of:

(a) enforcing the conditions under which boats may be used in the canals in compliance with canal bye-laws,

(b) ensuring that a boat on the canals is authorised in accordance with canal bye-laws to use the canals, or

(c) ensuring that persons on the canals or other canal property are complying with canal bye-laws.

Authorised Officers are regulated by the existing Canals Act 1986 and the powers of authorised officers are already provided in the 1988 Canal Bye Laws. These are being retained in the Heritage Bill 2016 with some new and amended provisions.