Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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14. To ask the Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht the capital spending in 2018; the funding allocated to Waterways Ireland; the projects undertaken by Waterways Ireland with the allocation; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [8679/19]

Josepha Madigan (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael)
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Waterways Ireland is co-funded by my Department and the Department for Infrastructure in Northern Ireland. The current expenditure of the body is funded 85% by my Department and 15% by the Department for Infrastructure which reflects the distribution of the navigable waterways in each jurisdiction. Capital expenditure is funded 100% in the jurisdiction in which the capital works are carried out.

Capital spending by Waterways Ireland in 2018 within this jurisdiction totalled €7,767,325. Of this amount, €2,587,325 was contributed from Waterways Ireland’s Reserves. These, as the Deputy knows, are the accumulation of proceeds from disposal of property and receipts from third party funded projects and are used to fund additional works.

The amount of funding allocated to Waterways Ireland from my Department's Vote for 2018 was €25,706,000 made up of €20,526,000 in Current and €5,180,000 in Capital.

The projects undertaken by Waterways Ireland in 2018 comprised a wide diversity of works with the overall objective of maintaining and indeed extending the waterways network.

For example, the largest expenditure of €1,605,934 was for maintenance of plant and machinery on the waterways. these are essential to the smooth operation of the navigations, the upkeep of the waterways, especially the canals, and the development of the general amenity of the Canal network.

€1,133,846 was spent on works on the Ulster Canal and €598,492 was used to develop the Rooskey Works Depot. This is an important new extension and the Deputy will appreciate its significance in a North South context and indeed in a Brexit context.

I will furnish the Deputy with a complete list of all Waterways Irelands 2018 Capital Projects. As the Deputy will see, there is a considerable emphasis too on the Blueway extension programme and some very ambitious objectives in that regard are being realised. Much capital investment too was focussed on the built heritage of the canal and waterways network and that indeed is to be welcomed too. The effort expended by Waterways Ireland in terms of flood mitigation works on the Shannon, in co-operation with the OPW is also especially important.

In 2018, Waterways Ireland focused on delivering its core activities and maintaining front line services.  Waterways Ireland concentrated the resources available on the areas of navigation which receive the highest levels of use.  A key goal for Waterways Ireland is to increase the use of the inland waterways. The number of registered users at the end of December 2018 was 15,539 with 95% of waters navigable during the boating season (mid-March to October).

Waterways Ireland Capital Projects 2018