Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 21 June 2018
30. Deputy Thomas P. Broughan asked the Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht the number of new national monuments which have been designated in the past five years; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [27023/18]
View answer35. Deputy Thomas P. Broughan asked the Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht the number of archaeological monuments that have been added to the Record of Monuments and Places in the past five years; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [27022/18]
View answerI propose to take Questions Nos. 30 and 35 together.
Section 12 of the National Monuments (Amendment) Act 1994 provides for the establishment and maintenance by my Department of a record of monuments and places (the Record of Monuments and Places) in respect of each county. While the current content of the Record of Monuments and Places remains as established in the late 1990s, work is under way on revision and updating of all records on a national basis, this being a necessary precursor to the issuing of a revised listing for each county. The monuments proposed for inclusion in a revised Record of Monuments and Places, along with existing entries, are listed in the non-statutory Sites and Monuments Record which may be viewed on my Department’s website. The number of additions made to the Sites and Monuments Record in the last five years is 3,862.
The National Monuments Acts 1930 to 2014 define “national monument” as meaning (in summary) any monument the preservation of which is a matter of national importance by reason of the historical, architectural, traditional, artistic, or archaeological interest attaching to it. Therefore, the Minister does not have, under the Acts, a function as such of designating monuments as national monuments other than by way of the exercise of a number of specified functions under the Acts which she may, at her discretion, exercise in respect of a monument which, in her opinion, are national monuments. These functions are the power to make preservation orders or temporary preservation orders in respect of national monuments which are in danger, the power to become guardian of a national monument and the power to acquire national monuments. There have been two instances of acquisition in the period in question.
