Tag Archives: Ulster Canal

Plot 8 has been NAMAed

The development of the Plot 8 site at the Grand Canal Docks, Ringsend, was to be the most valuable of three sites to be sold by Waterways Ireland, with Craggy Island hoping to use the proceeds to fund the Ulster Canal. The DDDA’s interest in Plot 8 has now passed to NAMA.

I provided background information from the Oireachtas Committee of Public Accounts here; the DDDA announcement is here but NAMA, alas, has no information at the moment.

DDDA had withdrawn permission for IWAI Dublin Branch to work on the graving docks at the site.

Progress is progressing on the Ulster Canal (it says here)

The Joint Communiqué from the last Plenary Meeting of the North/South  Ministerial Council meeting (18 November 2011) can now be read or downloaded (PDF) from the NSMC website. It has much to say about the Ulster Canal:

Progress on the Ulster Canal is progressing incrementally with the planning process ongoing.

Er … right. That’s it, then. Progress is progressing, eh? Well, I never.

We’ve now had an Inland Waterways Sectoral Meeting (12 October 2011) and a Plenary Meeting, neither of which has said anything about how (or whether) the canal to Clones is to be funded. Why not? Shouldn’t they show us the money?

 

NI Programme for Government

The Northern Ireland Executive’s Programme for Government (PDF) is available for download here. The accompanying statement to the Northern Ireland Assembly by the First Minister and deputy First Minister (MW Word .docx) is downloadable here and can also be read on the Assembly’s website here.

There is no mention of waterways or canals in either document.

NSMC

The Irish Times says that there is to be a meeting of the North-South Ministerial Council on Friday 18 November 2011, with the A5 road on the agenda. Perhaps there will be some news about how the proposed Clones Canal is to be funded.

The Ulster Canal

A modest proposal here for funding the canal.

Garlic for engineers

Information has arrived from the Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht. I have accordingly updated my page about the Ulster Canal and the Infrastructure and Capital Investment 2012-16: Medium Term Exchequer Framework.

The Ulster Canal and the Irish economy

The Irish government has decided that it cannot afford to pay for:

  • a road in the United Kingdom
  • some railway lines in Dublin, Meath and the west
  • a prison in the countryside.

But what of the Ulster Canal? It is not explicitly mentioned in the Infrastructure and Capital Investment 2012-16: Medium Term Exchequer Framework document published on 10 November 2011. It is not clear that the Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht will have enough money to pay for it: here is my assessment. In the absence of explicit information from the department, I would welcome information from other sources.

Optimists …

… in Clones.

Ulster Canal abandoned …

… says The Meath Chronicle, looking at events of 1931.

Buried at the crossroads …

… but without a stake through its heart. The Ulster Canal is dead, but it’s spinning in its grave. Its parent department has admitted some of the truth about its funding, but Waterways Ireland will be applying for planning permission for the scheme: there’s enough money for that, but not for digging. Nonetheless, Fine Gael TDs have managed to distract attention from the absence of funding by pointing to the planning application, while Sinn Féin and Fianna Fáil have not realised that a scheme’s benefits should outweigh its costs. Return of the Son of the Ghost of the Bride of the Ulster Canal on view here.