Missed opportunity for all-Ireland tourism

BY ROISIN DE ROSA

Local election candidate Jason Devlin at the underexploited Ballinasloe marina

Waterways Ireland is one of the Implementation Bodies set up under the Good Friday Agreement to develop the network of navigable waterways across the whole country. The potential for economic and community development, in some of the poorest neighbourhoods on our island, is huge. But it's not happening.

Take Ballinasloe as an example. Ballinasloe in County Galway is a relatively small town with a working population of around 5,000. Over the past five years, Ballinasloe has lost some 1,000 jobs. It doesn't sound like that many, but for a small town it is a serious crisis.

Dubarry, which employed over 500, is now down to 60 workers, many on short time. Square D, an American company that made electric circuits employing well over 350, is gone, along with AT Cross, which made pens and employed at least 200 people. St Bridget's Hospital, which was a major employer, has let many go. The running down and automation of the railway station means that it now employs half as many as before and the closure of the ESB outlet means people now pay their bills at the Post office.

"These closures have had knock-on effects on jobs in the town, which is fast becoming a dormitory town, with workers shipping out to Athlone or to Galway, says Sinn Féin local election candidate Jason Devlin, who lives in the town. "What jobs remain are surrounded by uncertainty. Mary Harney came down here with her promises of a task force to attract investment, but it has brought nothing - nothing to ensure people have security and a chance to live their lives well and bring up a family."

UNEXPLOITED RESOURCE

But Ballinasloe, situated on the river Suck, a short distance from the Shannon, has at least one unexploited resource, its waterway. At the so-called 'marina', Jason points out that "you can sail right up through to the Shannon from here, and on up around most of Ireland. But we've just these few moorings here - and that's all, apart from two locked toilets.

"There are no facilities here, no fresh water, refuelling, bilge extraction, no showers, none of the things that boating people need on shore. Where are the cafes or even a B&B where people can stay over onshore? Where are the boats for hire or the facilities for water sports? Where are the fishing shops?"

The marina boasts a bare notice board with some outdated tired advertisements for local bars. There's nothing else. "No one has bothered to take up the opportunities that are right on our doorstep," says Jason. "Imagine the jobs and money that would come into the town through the development of this marina - what with boat maintenance, boat hire, sports instruction, restaurants, bars, outside cafés, music, festivals, and general servicinng of the needs of tourists."

Waterways Ireland owns the 'marina'. The Implementation Body was set up for the restoration and development of the inland navigable waterways, which stretch throughout Ireland. They are a unique feature of the landscape. Tourists, especially from other EU countries, flock to the Shannon for two-week boating breaks.

UNIQUE WATERWAY

Boats can navigate the length of the longest river in Ireland through the island-studded lakes along the Shannon-Erne Waterway, which runs through areas hardly touched by tourist or visitors. The Grand Canal crosses Leinster from Dublin and joins with the Shannon in Offaly. From there, you can branch south to the River Barrow, one of the loveliest rivers in Ireland, which runs through wooded valleys down to the Barrow Estuary.

The lower River Bann is navigable from the Sea to Lough Neagh, and only waits on the completion of the Ulster Canal, which links Lough Erne and Lough Neagh, for the whole All-Ireland system to be navigable. It is a unique resource that could draw tourists from across Ireland and abroad.

Joe Herron, director of the Monaghan Chamber of Commerce, points out the potential of opening the canals for the small towns alongside them, like Clones, Smithborough, Glaslough and Emyvale. "If you look at the north of England, where canals have been reopened, the economic boom and development that has followed has been very significant," he says.

Waterways Ireland owns all these waterways, including the lengths of the Grand and the Royal Canals, starting from Dublin. But you have only to take a stroll down the banks of these canals to see how little the marvel of a canal running through the capital city is appreciated, or exploited. You only have to visit the marinas in, for example, Carrick-on-Shannon, to see the scope that exists for development of a huge industry, built on the beauty of the countryside and the pleasure of boating alongside quiet fields, with rich coarse fishing at the tip of a rod.

WATERWAYS IRELAND

Waterways Ireland was established in December 1999. Unlike four of the other Implementation bodies, it was set up as a company, without a board made up of political representatives, where Sinn Féin could have worked to drive it forward.

Waterways Ireland "aims to maximise the potential of the waterways resource by attracting visitors to local areas and thus enhancing local development opportunities". It goes on to define itself as having the intention to "secure the future of the waterways, and to ensure that... adequate financial resources, manpower and skills are available to secure the greatest economic and social benefit from the network".

There is a clear understanding in the strategic aims of the body not only "to enhance the development of the economic contribution to sustainable tourism", but also "to enhance the social contribution of the waterways and the link to related local businesses".

"You have only to visit our town of Ballinamore where, after the opening of the canal in 1994 by the late John Joe McGirl, tourism here and use of the waterway has grown from strength to strength," says Leitrim Sinn Féin Councillor Martin Kenny.

A number of community-based groups came together to form a company to get funding for the opening of the Shannon-Erne Waterway in 1994. The growth in tourism since the opening is reckoned at 14% per annum, with an average of 15,000 visitors per annum. It is calculated that the impact on the region has created 300 sustainable jobs.

As Francie Brolly MLA, says, it is an example of what Waterways Ireland was there to promote: community, social gain, the development of small local economies through community projects which, aided substantially with seed capital from government and the EU, are a source of money and sustainable jobs.

The expansion in tourism over recent years, especially in the 26 Counties, has been very substantial. There were an astonishing 8 million visitors to Ireland in 2000, with a cumulative spend of €4 billion in the 26 Counties and £282 million in the Six Counties.

It is estimated that tourism in the 26 Counties represents nearly 9% of all jobs. In the Six Counties, where tourism is relatively underdeveloped, the industry employs over 40,000 workers. The scope for all-Ireland tourism development, and most especially the development of waterways-based tourism, offers enormous opportunity for community-based, sustainable economic development, particularly in the peripheral border county areas.

Martin McGuinness recently gave a copy of Sinn Féin's proposals for the Expansion of All-Ireland Institutions and Areas of Work to the British Government, calling for the expansion of the Implementation Bodies such as Waterways Ireland.

"That's what we need if our town is to become a place where we can live and work," says Sinn Féin local election candidate Dermot Connolly of Ballinasloe, one of the Dubarry workers on short time. "The lack of proactive promotion of this cross border body has so far failed Ballinasloe and other small community-based development across some of the poorest regions in this country.

"It is to everyone's detriment that the potential for development of Waterways Ireland, and the promise of the Good Friday Agreement, has not been realised. I can imagine what this could mean to our town if the Board of Waterways Ireland was doing but half of what it set out to do.

"It is down to us in Sinn Féin to drive forward this potential for all-Ireland development which will mean that communities will at last benefit.