Murphy raises concerns about Waterways Ireland staffing levels

Fianna Fail Deputy for Roscommon/Galway Eugene Murphy has raised concerns about a reduction of staffing levels with Waterways Ireland on the River Shannon over the past number of years. Deputy Murphy raised the matter with the Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht Heather Humphreys through a recent parliamentary question when he queried staffing levels and also queried how many staff have been redeployed by Waterways Ireland since 2012 on the River Shannon from North Roscommon to Athlone and the numbers of staff currently employed in each of the areas along this stretch.

Deputy Murphy also queried the Minister as to whether there were plans to downgrade or close the Portumna and Tullamore bases while he noted that Waterways Ireland staff had expressed concern about a ‘short lived’ call out allowance.

“Concerns have been raised through my constituency office in relation to the redeployment and indeed loss of staff along the River Shannon over the past number of years. A total of 43 staff were employed on the North Shannon from Athlone to Lough Allen back in 2012 and that number is now down to 37. Constituents have raised concerns with me that staff have also been lost from the Lough Key area,” said Deputy Murphy.

The Fianna Fail Deputy also raised concerns about the payment of a call out allowance which had been allocated to staff during emergency situations. “My understanding is that a call out allowance was paid to workers during emergency situations such as flooding and workers were paid an allowance to be on call during such difficult times but this arrangement is no longer in place and I would urge consultation with the relevant trade unions if there are plans to introduce an on call rota,” said Deputy Murphy.

The Fianna Fail Deputy pointed out that a breakdown of the 37 staff currently employed by Waterways Ireland on the Shannon Navigation indicated the numbers at the following locations: Rooskey (6); Athlone (6); Albert Lock (3); Kilclare (1); Clarendon/ Drumshanbo (1), Tarmonbarry/ Clondra (1), Knockvicar (12) and Carrick-on-Shannon (7).

Deputy Murphy said that he had received confirmation from Minister Humphreys that Waterways Ireland had no plans to downgrade or close the Portumna or Tullamore bases. Minister Humphreys said however that the organisation was in the process of completing a competition to appoint from within its existing staff, a manager, on a fixed term contract of 24 months, to review the services provided by Tullamore and Portumna offices and to examine how these services can be best developed to meet evolving requirements and the changing circumstances in which Waterways Ireland works.

Deputy Murphy also highlighted the fact that Waterways Ireland headquarters was based in Enniskillen and the organisation was a North/South Body yet he said there was a “disproportionate’ amount in the levels of funding allocated from Ireland and Northern Ireland. “Figures show that Ireland has allocated a total of 123.897 million to Waterways Ireland since 2012 to 2016 while the Northern Ireland allocation to Waterways Ireland during this same time period is only 19.879million which means that Ireland is responsible for 85% of the Waterways Ireland funding from 2012 to 2016 while the Northern Ireland allocation for the same time period amounts to 15%,” said Deputy Murphy