Vol. 528 No. 3
12 Mr. Durkan asked the Minister for Arts, Heritage Gaeltacht and the Islands the extent to which a register exists of all sites, buildings and locations which are of historical and cultural interest with a view to the maximisation of such for tourism and educational purposes; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [30053/00]
A record of monuments and places under section 12 of the National Monuments Acts has been established in respect of ancient monuments for all counties throughout the State and is available for inspection by members of the public at various venues, mainly local authority planning offices, public libraries and museums, farm development service and Teagasc offices during normal, public opening hours. The record of monuments and places consists of a set of constraint maps based on current 6 inch Ordnance Survey mapping with an accompanying index giving location details, national grid co-ordinates, townland name or street name and monument classification. The records cover approximately 120,000 sites.
The vast majority of recorded monuments are in private care and my Department manages about 740 national monuments and historic properties nationwide. Representative samples of these sites are chosen for presentation to the public. Details of these are published annually as a booklet which is furnished to the tourist trade and heritage cardholders and Members of the Oireachtas. The current booklet includes information on over 100 heritage locations including parks, gardens, waterways, monuments, nature reserves and cultural institutions.
Under the provisions of the Architectural Heritage (National Inventory) and Historic Monuments (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act, 1999, a nationwide survey of architectural heritage is currently being carried out by my Department to help identify structures and buildings which are of architectural, historical, archaeological artistic, cultural, scientific, social or technical interest. The Government is committed to completing all interim county surveys within a period of 12 years.
Does the Minister envisage a promotional campaign, with a particular reference to the need to bring to the attention of the younger generation – primary school children in the first instance – the location, importance and relevance of their recognition of their culture and heritage?
I could not agree more that it is most important we ensure that young people especially have an interest in, knowledge of and access to our heritage. Given this, I have ensured that all school children on school trips to different locations throughout the country have free access to the centres in question. The booklet to which I have referred gives an excellent summary of the sites that are available. The information services in my Department rightly prides itself on the work it is doing to disseminate it, not only to schools but to the public. We have also been able to greatly improve the information services at our sites by way of interpretation. I set up the Ceol Reoite project in the Department to heighten the awareness of and to promote some of our most famous national monuments and important sites. In doing so, I hoped to encourage our young artistic talent by marrying pieces of music and the architecture involved.
