Vol. 518 No. 1
37 Mr. O'Shea asked the Minister for Arts, Heritage Gaeltacht and the Islands the decisions, if any, made on the devolution of responsibility for the protection of archaeological sites within the planning process to planning authorities. [10979/00]
There has been preliminary contact between officials from the Department of the Environment and Local Government and my Department in relation to an enhanced role for local authorities in the protection of our archaeological heritage. The issue was also raised by my Department with the County Managers Association last December but it has not yet responded.
The issue of wider responsibilities for local authorities in this area is a complex one which will require detailed consideration and, possibly, legislative changes. It will be a lengthy process but I am committed to exploring the matter fully as I believe that providing local authorities with in-house expertise provides an opportunity to deliver a more efficient and effective regime for management of the archaeological heritage and at the same time does not conflict with their planning and development mandate.
In the meantime, my Department will continue to provide advice and assistance to local authorities on planning and development issues. In this regard, I hope to be able to streamline my service through a combination of additional temporary archaeologists which I am recruiting at present and a repositioning of those resources that are already available to me.
I thank the Minister for her reply and obviously she is pursuing the issue. Does she agree each planning authority should have at least one archaeologist on its staff? Does she also agree the current method of carrying out excavations is not very satisfactory? Ground penetrating radar provides a much better alternative whereby archaeological remains will not be damaged because they are first identified in the ground before being excavated. Does the Minister agree there is great urgency about this matter when one considers the criticism of the system by bodies as far apart as the Heritage Council and the Irish Homebuilders Association?
I compliment the Minister on what she has done, but she should urgently advance this agenda in the interests not alone of protecting our heritage but also of housing and infrastructural development. All the indications are that we are in a bottleneck which will worsen in the months ahead.
I thank the Deputy for his words of encouragement. I view this as a matter of concern and a priority. It is important that we streamline the system to obtain the balance to which the Deputy referred earlier, between protecting heritage and development. I will be answering a question later today concerning a code of practice that has been drawn up with regard to my own Department and the NRA. It alludes to the importance of our archaeology and the fact that we need such developments under the national development plan. We do not wish to have delays but at the same time that balance is required to preserve our heritage. To do that, it is important to have an input from local authorities. That is why I am trying to bring about a situation whereby there will be one archaeologist per local authority. Obviously, a good local knowledge will speed up matters in a number of ways.
People may be concerned about the cost of having archaeologists in local authorities. The proposal we will put forward estimates that 30 archaeologists would be needed, at an estimated current cost of £750,000. All this can be seen in the work we are doing under the national development plan, which I hope to publish very soon. I am proposing that half the cost will be met by an annual allocation from my Department for the lifetime of the national development plan. Following that, local authorities would be required to fund the posts. This is a goodwill gesture and it is the way in which I wish to proceed. It is not just a question of speeding ahead to ensure our development. We need to strike a balance between that development and protecting our natural heritage. This is the best way forward.
Is the Minister contemplating circumstances in which excavation licences would be provided by local authorities? Does she see that as a desirable route? A local archaeologist would have an indepth knowledge of the heritage and archaeology of the area and, therefore, would be in a position to respond much more quickly. What is the Minister's response to the criticism of current archaeological methodology contained in the recent Heritage Council report?
I view the provision of excavation licences as being the business of the Department. I see local authorities becoming involved, however, in providing extra knowledge and they would certainly speed up the process by feeding that kind of information to the Department. Local authorities, such as Dublin and Cork corporations, have been working extremely hard in this regard. They have put archaeologists in on a non-statutory basis and have worked the system well.
As regards the Deputy's second question, can he repeat it?
I related to the Heritage Council report.
The time has elapsed and we must move on.
That question will be answered in a subsequent reply today.
