The Ulster Canal now

This page provides links (below) to pages that discuss in some detail the proposal, by the government of Ireland, to spend €35 million (or some larger unspecified sum) building a canal from Lough Erne to Clones.

There is quite a lot to read: pages 1 to 10 between them come to about 18,500 words, with no photos, which may be too much for most people. Ulster Canal 0: overview is a 3,600-word summary of the case, which may be enough, but it does not have the quotations, the references or some of the political aspects. If even that is too long, jusst read the brief summary below.

Comments and corrections are welcome but, if they’re on the detail, it would be better if they were made on the appropriate page.

Summary

The Irish government has been pushing, since the 1990s, for the restoration of the Ulster Canal. Several studies have been commissioned; all of them show that the project is uneconomic. At no stage has either the UK or the Northern Ireland administration shown any willingness to commit funding to the project. As a result, the Irish government has scaled back its ambitions, proposing to fund the construction of a canal from Lough Erne to Clones in Co Monaghan: it would cross the border several times, but it would pass through no significant conurbation on the northern side.

However, this scaled-back project makes even less sense than the proposal for full restoration, and there is no reason to believe that the canal will ever get any further than Clones. The Irish government might, I suppose, decide to dig on to Monaghan, as a form of famine relief work, but there is no evidence that the Northern Ireland Executive will ever put money into completing the route to Lough Neagh.

The costs of the proposal have not been reexamined for many years, and the economic analyses may overstate the likely benefits. Even if they are accurate, though, the main benefits seem to come from casual visitors rather than from boaters. The benefits will go to service providers in the area, rather than to the waterways authority, but even if they went to Waterways Ireland they would not pay the running costs, never mind repaying the capital cost. The project has failed every economic test to which it has been subjected: it simply does not provide the sort of return that would justify the project.

There seems to be some doubt over the source of the proposed funding. The Irish government said that it canal to Clones would be paid for by the Irish Exchequer, but it later said that Waterways Ireland would sell surplus assets to pay some or all of the cost. It is clear that Waterways Ireland’s surplus assets would not, in current economic conditions, bring in enough money; nor is it clear that the Department of Finance is willing to make up any shortfall.

There might be something to be said for acquiring the land and creating a walking and cycling route, but the current proposal for a canal to Clones is utterly unjustifiable and should be dropped.

The Ulster Canal 0: overview

The Ulster Canal 1: background

The Ulster Canal 2: the southern strategic priority

The Ulster Canal 3: implementation

The Ulster Canal 4: Ulster says no

The Ulster Canal 5: studies and appraisals

The Ulster Canal 6: the costs

The Ulster Canal 7: the supposed benefits

The Ulster Canal 8: the funding

The Ulster Canal 9: affordability

The Ulster Canal 1o: kill it now

The Ulster Canal 11: some information from Waterways Ireland