Vol. 511 No. 2
2 Mr. O'Shea asked the Minister for Arts, Heritage, Gaeltacht and the Islands the proposals, if any, she has to ensure access to, and professional advice on, sites and monuments records; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [23870/99]
The sites and monuments record – SMR – has been subsumed by the statutory record of monuments and places under section 12 of the National Monuments (Amendment) Act, 1994. The original survey records and related archival material which form the basis of the record of monuments and places are extensive. These records, covering all counties except Cork, Galway and parts of Donegal, are kept in the Archaeological Survey of Dúchas, the heritage service of my Department in 51 St. Stephen's Green, Dublin 2, which is also the headquarters of the Office of Public Works. It has been the practice of my Department to make these accessible to the public to facilitate more detailed inquiries and research. Until recently, this material could be viewed on Mondays by appointment from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. and from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. The Cork and Galway archaeological archive can be viewed in the archaeological departments in UCC and UCG. The Donegal archive can be viewed in Letterkenny Museum.
On the question of access to the full Archaeological Survey records, the position is that, as part of refurbishment works which are being carried out on the Office of Public Works's headquarters at 51 St. Stephen's Green, the consultation rooms at the entrance to the building, which are shared with Office of Public Works and would normally be available to the public for inspecting the Archaeological Survey records, were dismantled some weeks ago. This has given rise to problems of access to the records but alternative facilities have been arranged within the building and normal service, including professional advice on such matters as data searching and retrieval, has been resumed.
I note that the Minister stated that normal service has been resumed. However, 3,000 planning referrals were received last year while so far this year 4,000 have been received and because of the difficulties that pertain to these records, there is a major problem in planning whereby projects can be held up by up to 12 months. This can affect EU funded infrastructural projects? Does the Minister agree that there is a crisis in terms of the need for extra staff as well as accommodation?
I was interested by the figures quoted by the Deputy in his question but perhaps I can be more accurate. A total of 1,000 planning referrals were received in 1992 and 4,500 will have been dealt with by the end of this year, which is more than the Deputy quoted. The sheer level of economic development in the State in recent years has placed an enormous burden on the professional services in my Department, such as the archaeological service. However, the need to prioritise the existing resource led to the achievement of a major milestone last year when the full record of monuments and places was completed for 120,000 sites throughout the State. Marvellous work has been done on that and I thank the officials in my Department who have put in a tremendous amount of work. I agree with the Deputy that there has been an increase in the volume of work which perhaps is due in part to the Celtic tiger and the fact that more issues must be addressed. The numbers speak for themselves.
That is fine but people involved in planning say that the situation is serious and, indeed, the system could face complete breakdown with all sorts of repercussions for planning and development. Will the Minister give an absolute assurance that the new measures implemented by her will result in proper and speedy processing – and not in a haphazard way – of the various referrals and licence applications? I do not accept that there will be a substantial change in this seriously deteriorating situation, which could have awful repercussions for the construction industry and the development of the nation's infrastructure.
I do not accept that there is a crisis in this regard. I already explained to the Deputy that great emphasis was put on the record of monuments and places, which has been completed. There are 120,000 sites and a great deal of manpower was required to complete the record. However, that information is now available to the public. The Deputy will also be aware that every section in every Department wants more staff because the specialisation of the modern world and the volume of work is increasing. There have been a number of extra referrals because of the economic boom. While I do not agree that there is a crisis, we would like to have more staff and I am addressing the issue.
