I reported here on April’s meeting of the North-South Ministerial Council (inland waterways flavour). I wasn’t there, though, and Carál Ní Chuilín was. Here is her account of the meeting, as explained to the Northern Ireland Assembly yesterday. There is much of interest, including the prospect of new byelaws on the Erne.
Members of the free state parliament don’t, as far as I know, get similar briefings.
It is slightly disconcerting to note that Jim Allister, the Traditional Unionist Voice MLA, seems to be the only person on the island, apart from me, to worry about delays in approving Waterways Ireland’s budgets.
Irish waterways history 
If it’s any consolation, I too am also bemused to find myself agreeing with Jim Allister…
The situation appears to be that Waterways Ireland continue to spend money that it cannot afford, on the basis that Sinn Féin refuse to sign the documents that would stop it (?!). Or something. This seems rather like a patient bleeding to death in an ambulance because they refuse to produce ID or sign a patient consent form. Maybe.
What are WI spending the money on, though, as it does not appear to be the Ulster Canal as yet?
Moreover Sinn Féin seem completely silent on the Tralee Ship Canal. As ever, all the focus seems to be on securing initial funding to buy shovels, and no thought at all to the cost of having a shed to keep them in or stopping them going rusty.
The row is about the ordinary current, not capital, spending: the impoverished citizenry of the free state cannot afford as generous a subvention to Waterways Ireland as can the blessed inhabitants of HM Realm, who are wealthy beyond the dreams of avarice thanks to that nice Irishman Mr Osborne (evidently a reader of the works of John Creasey/J J Marric). bjg