Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour)
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233. To ask the Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht the position regarding an infrastructural development (details supplied) in County Kildare. [47547/18]

Josepha Madigan (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael)
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Waterways Ireland commenced the development of Blueways as a means to attract new visitors to use the waterways recognising changes in recreational activity with the growth in demand for activities such as walking, canoeing, cycling and stand up paddle boarding.

The project in question will upgrade some 115km of existing navigation towpath which is also a National Way-marked Way. These upgrades will provide a multi-use shared leisure route connecting in County Kildare passing through a number of towns.

This proposal will improve access to the Way-marked Way for a wider range of users including walkers, cyclists, wheelchair users and families and will enhance safety and accessibility in all weather conditions.

The current position regarding the project is that Waterways Ireland has submitted a planning application to, inter alia, Kildare County Council for the towpath to enable it to become a Blueway. The applications were refused planning permissions in February 2018 for the ‘river’ elements of the navigation. Waterways Ireland has subsequently appealed those decisions to An Bord Pleanála and await their outcome.