NSMC latest

The joint communiqué from the latest North-South Ministerial Council inland waterways sectoral meeting, held on 9 July 2012, is here as a web page and here as a PDF.

The exciting bits:

• WI provided more moorings, sponsored 101 events, maintained the waterways [see below], published its restaurant guide and list of events and continued involvement with the Waterways Forward project
• WI is developing its budget and business plan for 2012 [isn’t that a bit late?]
• the NSMC “noted” WI’s annual report and draft accounts for 2011
• the NSMC allowed WI to sell some stuff
• WI has thought of some funding options for the Clones canal (but citizens can’t be told what they are). An “inter-agency group”, “set up to examine all possible options to advance the project”, will meet in July; the options “will be explored taking account of fiscal constraints”, although it’s not clear whether the unfortunate members of the “inter-agency group” will do the exploring or whether some more authoritative body, like the Troika, will make the decisions. But as the canal is said to be such a good investment, it may be that a public-private partnership will develop it under the Irish government’s €2 billion stimulus package.

The waterways maintenance part includes the claim that “97.5% of waterways remain[ed] open during the months of April and May”. That depends on how you measure things, though. The summit level of the Royal Canal was closed for almost the whole of that two-month period, so the canal (one seventh, about 14%, of WI’s waterways) was impassable throughout.