Category Archives: Restoration and rebuilding

No Heritage Council grants this year

Posted on Thursday 13 December 2012 | 1 comment

Heritage Council Grant Programme Suspended for 2013:

In 2012 the Heritage Council was in a position to allocate €1.4 million to 273 public projects across Ireland supporting jobs and improving the quality of our tourism product now and for the long term. Regrettably, due to additional budget cuts from the Dept. of Arts, Heritage & the Gaeltacht for 2013, the Heritage Council will not be in a position to advertise grants for the coming year. This is the first time since the Heritage Council was established in 1997 that it will be unable to allocate funding for the wider heritage sector and we will be working to see that this situation is reversed for 2014.

Core aspects of our national heritage infrastructure, including the Heritage Officer Programme, the Irish Walled Towns Network (IWTN), the Irish Landmark Trust, and the National Biodiversity Data Centre (NBDC) will continue to receive some level of support. Funding for the 2012/13 REPS4 Traditional Farm Buildings Grant Scheme, which is funded by the Dept. of Argiculture, Food & the Marine will not been affected.

The Council had conducted a strenuous and successful campaign to ensure its own survival, as I noted back in November.

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Posted in Ashore, Built heritage, Economic activities, Extant waterways, Industrial heritage, Ireland, Natural heritage, Non-waterway, Operations, People, Politics, Restoration and rebuilding, Tourism, Waterways management

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WI programme costs

Posted on Tuesday 11 December 2012 | 1 comment
From WI's annual report for 2011

From WI’s annual report for 2011

Note that programme costs do not include staff costs, as the income and expenditure account for y/e 31 December 2011 makes clear.

From WI's annual report for 2011

From WI’s annual report for 2011

The most startling thing in the programme costs is that Shannon costs have increased 57% while Grand Canal costs have decreased by 25%. I presume that the change is in the Civil Construction/Supply contract costs, as the other items don’t seem to have enough scope for such large changes. It would be interesting to know what the contracts were. The accounts of Grand Canal improvements on pages 12 and 16 don’t suggest any diminution in activity, although they are not specific enough to be definitive; the account for the Shannon on page 17 mention some new undertakings, of which the most significant was perhaps the new mooring at Killaloe, whereof the Chief Executive said in the Foreword:

From WI's annual report for 2011

From WI’s annual report for 2011

And so, I’m sure, say all of us.

But wouldn’t that be a capital cost? I can’t work out how the income and expenditure figures link to the activities covered in the descriptions of achievements.

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Posted in Economic activities, Engineering and construction, Extant waterways, Industrial heritage, Ireland, Irish waterways general, Operations, People, Restoration and rebuilding, Shannon, Sources, Tourism, waterways, Waterways management

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WI and NAMA

Posted on Tuesday 11 December 2012 | Leave a comment
From WI's annual report for 2011

From WI’s annual report for 2011

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Posted in Ashore, Built heritage, Economic activities, Engineering and construction, Extant waterways, Industrial heritage, Ireland, Irish waterways general, Non-waterway, Operations, Politics, Restoration and rebuilding, waterways, Waterways management

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Let joy …

Posted on Tuesday 11 December 2012 | 2 comments

… be unconfined: Waterways Ireland’s Annual Report for 2011 has now been released [PDF], just in time for the Christmas market.

Why not slip it into the stocking of your significant other?

And now for the results you’ve been waiting for, the most important information in the annual report.

1. What is John Martin’s job title in Ulster Scots this year?

Alas, the boring Chief Executive has triumphed again: we haven’t even got a Cheif. Bring back the Heid Fector!

2. What is his report called? Foreward bae the Heid Fector, Innin wi tha Heid Fector or (the popular favourite) Twarthy words bae tha heid yin?

Alas again, it’s a boring Foreword by the Chief Executive.

3. What is the Ulster Scots for Waterways Ireland?

This is the only interesting part: it’s still Watterweys Airlann in the logo (presumably it would be too expensive to get that redesigned) but Watterwyes Airlan in the text.

I may find some boring bits elsewhere that I can report on later.

 

 

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Posted in Economic activities, Engineering and construction, Extant waterways, Foreign parts, Ireland, Irish waterways general, Operations, People, Politics, Restoration and rebuilding, Sources, Ulster Canal, waterways, Waterways management

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Disband Clare County Council

Posted on Sunday 9 December 2012 | 8 comments

In order to save some money, it might be a good idea to disband Clare County Council. Then we wouldn’t have county councillors proposing idiotic projects (joined in this instance by some TDs) requiring vast capital expenditure (which we can’t afford) to produce zero jobs.

More about Ardnacrusha here.

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Posted in Built heritage, Economic activities, Engineering and construction, Extant waterways, Industrial heritage, Ireland, Irish waterways general, Non-waterway, Operations, People, Politics, Restoration and rebuilding, Shannon, Sources, waterways, Waterways management

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Boats at Shannon Harbour

Posted on Friday 7 December 2012 | 2 comments
Unidentified GRP boat

Unidentified GRP boat

Jemmy X at Shannon Harbour December 2012 03_resize

Jemmy X

Scallywag at Shannon Harbour December 2012 20_resize

Scallywag

Scalpa at Shannon Harbour December 2012 05_resize

Scalpa

All photos taken 6 December 2012.

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Posted in Extant waterways, Ireland, Irish inland waterways vessels, Restoration and rebuilding, Tourism, Water sports activities, waterways, Weather

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DAHG

Posted on Wednesday 5 December 2012 | Leave a comment

I thought I should troll on over to the website of the Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht to see if they had anything to say about the budget.

I looked straight away at the News & Recent Publications section on the front page. But I was taken aback to see that the department has not had anything to say since 15 May 2012, which is the date of the most recent addition to the section. Using the menu on the left, I find that the ministers have made no speech since October 2011 (not that I’m complaining, of course). There have been press releases, but the most recent consultation ended in March 2012.

It really is a god-awful website. DAHG needs to hire a couple of twenty-year-old interns who have some idea about tinterweb.

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Posted in Ashore, Built heritage, Economic activities, Industrial heritage, Ireland, Irish waterways general, Natural heritage, Operations, People, Politics, Restoration and rebuilding, Scenery, Sources, Tourism, waterways, Waterways management

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Budget

Posted on Wednesday 5 December 2012 | 2 comments

Vast wodges of bumpf from the government’s budget site, with non-searchable PDFs, god rot ’em. An initial look suggests these points:

  • the Dept of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht’s total allocation to northsouthery, which includes waterways, will be down 6% next year
  • current spending on northsouthery will be down from €38 244 000 to €36 178 000. Waterways Ireland gets the biggest wodge of that, about 60% [see my comment last year] in 2011; I guess that the cuts will be shared pro rata, but I can’t be sure
  • WI’s capital expenditure allocation will be reduced from €4 500 000 to €4 071 000, which may go towards shovels for thon sheugh
  • decisions on northsouthery have to be agreed by the NSMC [Irish government and NI executive].

More as I plough the pile, but the summary (to nobody’s surprise) is less spending on waterways. Maybe Éanna should have pushed ….

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Posted in Ashore, Economic activities, Engineering and construction, Extant waterways, Foreign parts, Ireland, Irish waterways general, Non-waterway, Operations, Politics, Restoration and rebuilding, Sources, Ulster Canal, Waterways management

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WI finances

Posted on Tuesday 27 November 2012 | 7 comments

Robin Evans, chief executive of the Canal & River Trust, was interviewed in the December 2012 issue of Waterways World. CART, a charitable trust, has taken over from British Waterways in England and Wales, but not in Scotland.

Robin Evans pointed out in the interview that, whereas waterways in Scotland get 98% of their funding from the state, CART’s English and Welsh waterways get only 35%. Amongst other things, CART is seeking donations and getting people to volunteer as lockkeepers and in other roles.

I’ll bet the Irish government is looking on with interest.

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Posted in Ashore, Built heritage, Economic activities, Engineering and construction, Extant waterways, Foreign parts, Industrial heritage, Ireland, Irish waterways general, Natural heritage, Non-waterway, Operations, People, Politics, Restoration and rebuilding, Scenery, Sources, waterways, Waterways management

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Boats to return to Corbally Branch

Posted on Tuesday 27 November 2012 | Leave a comment

Well, canoes, but better than nothing.

PS for “upstream” read “downstream”, as far as I can see.

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Posted in Ashore, Economic activities, Engineering and construction, Extant waterways, Forgotten navigations, Industrial heritage, Ireland, Irish inland waterways vessels, Irish waterways general, Operations, People, Restoration and rebuilding, Sources, Tourism, Water sports activities, waterways, Waterways management, Weather

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