Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

1155.To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the total funding provided to date by his Department and through other Departments and agencies towards the development of a project (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [33165/24]

Malcolm Noonan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Green Party)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

The Ulster Canal restoration is a flagship North-South project, supported by the Shared Island Fund, managed by Waterways Ireland and overseen by my Department.

The project is a 13km restoration from Clones in Co. Monaghan to Upper Lough Erne, and includes a new canal basin and harbour at Clones, a new canal, 5 access bridges, 4 minor road bridges, 3 masonry arc bridges, a new aqueduct at Clonfad; many kilometres of towpaths and an extensive dredging programme.

The project is being delivered in 3 Phases.

Phase 1, which linked Lough Erne to Castlesaunderon is complete. The funding provided for Phase 1 was just over €4m.

I was delighted to mark the completion of Phase 2, Clones to Clonfad, on 19 June this year . This section of the works, which includes the new marina at Clones, has been funded jointly by my Department, the Shared Island Fund and the Department of Rural and Community Development. The cost of Phase two is just over €20m plus VAT, with funding provided by my Department, the Department of Rural and Community Development and the Shared Island Fund.

Phase 3 is the longest phase of the project at approximately 10km and will connect Castle Saunderson to Clonfad and link the town of Clones by navigable waterway to the Erne System and onward to the wider waterway network of the Shannon-Erne Waterway, the Shannon Navigation, the Royal and Grand Canals towards Dublin and further south along the Barrow Line and Barrow Navigation.

With planning permission in place, it is now possible to progress three of the four sub-phases of Phase 3 which have strong synergies with Phase 2 of the project. These works will bring the restored canal south of the border from Fermanagh and extend it further to the West from Clones. In 2023, the Government approved €40m in funding from the Shared Island Fund towards this aspect of the project, with a commitment to a similar amount in match funding from my Department.

The Ulster Canal project is a long standing commitment of successive Governments and is transformative, not just for the areas that the canal traverses, both north and south of the border, but also for Waterways Ireland and for tourism and recreation along our inland waterways nationally.