New Waterways chief provides a firm hand on the tiller

Dawn is the new Chief Executive of Waterways Ireland. She has spent her working life encouraging people to use the free resource of the water in our inland lakes, canals and rivers and is already well known in Fermanagh as the first Director of the Share Holiday Village on the shores of Upper Lough Erne outside Lisnaskea. Now her vision will be to increase the recreational use of our waterways during her seven-year tenure.

Dawn took up her new post on Monday.

"I'm delighted but it was quite a shock," said Dawn modestly from the magnificent Waterways Ireland's headquarters building in Enniskillen this week where she heads the organisation responsible for the navigation of 1,000 kilometres of inland waterways.

Of course, Dawn is no stranger to the organisation which she joined in 2002 having served in two different departments looking at strategy and property issues.

"It's a 7-year appointment with 85 per cent of funding for Waterways Ireland coming from the Republic of Ireland and 15 per cent from Northern Ireland," she explained, outlining how it reflects the percentage of waterways in each jurisdiction. She also says that centralisation on an all-Ireland basis is resulting in delivering a better quality service and better value for money especially at a time of a reducing budget.

Waterways Ireland was created as one of the North-South implementation bodies by the North-South Ministerial Council set up under the Good Friday Agreement. Waterways Ireland is charged with responsibility for the management, maintenance, development and restoration of specified inland navigable waterways principally for recreational purposes. One of her roles will be to report to the Council several times a year when it is attended by the two Ministers responsible; Caral Ni Chuilin of the Department for Culture Arts and Leisure in Northern Ireland and Jimmy Deenihan, Minister for Arts, Heritage and Gaeltacht in the Republic.

Dawn has a vision for the organisation into the future. She says they must deliver value for money and they need to be more creative and wants more focus on increased recreational use.

"I came here because it has a great brief promoting recreational activities. I see this as a real opportunity to deliver that and use every cent of public money we get,"she says, demonstrating her great passion for the outdoors.

She has seen more people are taking up canoeing, cycling and walking and she feels Waterways Ireland can stimulate this further. She has seen an upsurge in the use of canal towpaths and the canoe trail in Fermanagh has attracted people internationally. She says there are quality built harbours and amenity blocks at marinas and the challenge going forward is to focus on greater recreational use.

"However we have some fundamental challenges ahead such as the invasive weed on Upper Lough Erne and the Zebra Mussel on the Erne system and if we do not find the solution there will be problems with navigation," she says.

Dawn is originally from Newry but her father was a native of the Glassmullagh area between Derrylin and Crom. She embarked on an architectural degree course at Queen's University, Belfast but left to become the first Director of the Share Residential Centre, on Upper Lough Erne in 1981 when all it consisted was a farmhouse and a piece of land bordering the shores of the Upper Lough. She developed the Centre's charity status, in a partnership with charities and saw the centre develop into what it is to-day, a holiday village comprising a 220-bed residential activity centre on 60 acres, a 300-seat multipurpose theatre and arts complex, 50-berth marina and indoor leisure suite. She had qualified as a sailing and canoe instructor and she returned to her studies and holds an MBA from the University of Ulster in Business Administration.

Her entrepreneurial work developing the Centre was recognised with the award of the Gallaher's Northern Ireland Business Woman of the Year in 1988.

Proud of how the Share Centre turned out, Dawn said it now employs 35 people with a further 200 volunteers helping to deliver a range of land and water based activities for groups and individuals.

In 2002, Dawn joined Waterways Ireland as Head of Strategy and Policy and she established an Equality Scheme and led the integration of accessibility into project design and maintenance programmes. In 2008 she moved to become Head of Property and Legal where she has modernised the organisation's approach to both property management and legal matters.

Now in charge of 340 staff currently employed across Ireland, 70 of them at the headquarters building, she said they had wonderful historic records and they work closely with heritage organisations including the Inland Waterways Association and other interests.

She says many of their projects are team efforts working in partnerships with local authorities and other bodies. An example is a new marina at Lough Key developed in association with Coilte, the forestry organisation and Roscommon County Council.

There are also major capital works to be undertaken on the River Bann with new weirs.

However she says Irish people have not embraced the waterways around them as expected.

"We are a nation of people surrounded by water but very few get outdoors culturally. The waterways are free to everyone," she says encouragingly.

Dawn says the message must be to provide the right infrastructure and encouraging the public and she will continue to ensure Waterways Ireland works with Tourism Ireland and locally with Fermanagh Lakeland Tourism.

Just last weekend, Dawn met some tourists from Devon who came to Fermanagh for an activity holiday because it was cheaper than elsewhere. They found Fermanagh people friendly and the lakes "empty" and felt the daylight hours were longer here.

"We need to sell that," she says.

Dawn will use her powerful message of getting involved, leading from the front. She and her family enjoy sailing holidays most years around the Greek and Croatian coastlines to name a few.

Her family are equally passionate. Her husband, Robert is now Chief Executive of the Share Holiday Village, and he was her canoe instructor in her teens. Their daughter, Maeve graduated from Manchester in history and starts her teaching career in Wigan next year while Robyn is studying geography in Glasgow and will travel to Calgary for the third year of her degree. Dawn is NI Trustee to the Family Fund, a member of the Consumer Council of NI and a Trustee of the Lloyds TSB NI Foundation and in her spare time, is a keen sailor and gardener.