This question is not linked with any other, is it?
Tuesday, 2 October 2018
Questions (69)
Oral answers (29 contributions)
I do not believe so.
It is the same as Question No. 107.
It should have been linked with it, but it is not. Perhaps, with the approval of the Minister, we can include a supplementary question from Deputy Joan Burton.
I would appreciate it if we could keep it tight because I have another question after this one.
I think it is up to the Deputy. It does not make any difference to me.
The Minister is taking the question. Therefore, with her approval, we will take a supplementary question from Deputy Joan Burton.
Richard Boyd Barrett
Question:69. Deputy Richard Boyd Barrett asked the Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht further to Parliamentary Question No. 823 of 18 September 2018, if her Department has considered buying the 4,500 acres of the estate that do not include the house in view of the good value price her Department paid for a similar piece of land at Glenasmole in 2016; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [39845/18]
View answerThe Minister is well aware that there is a huge campaign and great public concern about the Luggala estate in the Wicklow mountains, a unique piece of our cultural heritage which is up for sale. Under its previous owners, the de Brún family, public access to Lough Dan and the surrounding area was guaranteed. With its sale, there are real fears that any new owner could cut off access to Lough Dan and the surrounding area and that access to this precious piece of our cultural heritage could be lost. People are appealing to the Minister to step in and purchase the Luggala estate to secure it for public use into the future.
I thank the Deputy for his question which we have previously discussed in the House. As outlined in my response to Parliamentary Question No. 823 of 18 September, there is no change in my Department's position. The sale and any apportionment of the property into lots are commercial matters for the vendor.
Through the National Parks and Wildlife Service, NPWS, my Department manages a property portfolio in respect of national parks and reserves of approximately 87,000 ha. These important biodiversity areas are located all around the country and include a large area of County Wicklow and the 5,000 acres of lands in Glenasmole and the Featherbeds purchased in recent years. Given the limited resources available for capital investment within the national parks and nature reserves, I recognise the need to focus on the core responsibilities in the management of the existing national parks and reserve lands. While the lands in question would represent a significant addition to the stock of publicly owned heritage properties and lands, my Department could only consider acquiring the property if the price fell to within a certain range, or in the context of a donation or bequest. This is known to the vendors. Clearly, the Glenasmole purchase of 5,000 acres of land sets a precedent and, although the circumstances pertaining to it are very dissimilar, it is certainly a market factor. As the Deputy will no doubt appreciate, it would not be appropriate for me to seek to negotiate indirectly or publicly. Suffice it to say I am absolutely aware of the public good value of the property.
My Department's relationship with the Guinness estate here and more generally has been positive. It is one of mutual respect and being good neighbours and often of working together on shared issues of interest. They include herd management and husbandry, habitat oversight, film-making, signage, visitor accommodation, trail maintenance and designation management. For the most part, the boundary between the private estate and the national park is invisible to the visitor and tourist, with pre-eminence being given to the idyllic shared land, lake and mountain-scape. My officials remain in constructive contact with the agents for the vendors in this matter.
We need more of an assurance than that. There are big petitions ongoing and the matter has been raised a number of times in the House. It would be completely unacceptable if the area was to be fenced off as private property and become inaccessible. There would be uproar. Any restriction of access to the vista at Lough Dan would be totally unacceptable. We need an assurance that the Minister is going to do something about the matter. If the house is a problem, can the Minister give security about the surrounding lands, guaranteeing access to Lough Dan, the walks and viewing points? Will she at least guarantee that they will be taken into public ownership in order that public access to this unique and beautiful piece of our heritage will not be restricted? If that is allowed to happen, it will be beyond shame.
I thank Deputy Boyd Barrett. Question No. 10 in my name is about the same matter. This is part of the heritage of every Irish person. It is a place with which people are very familiar. I am certainly very familiar with it since I was first brought there as a small child. What I am really upset about is that "private property" signs, as I am sure the Minister is aware, have begun to appear on the road above the lake. Mountaineering Ireland has written to the Minister specifically about the Luggala estate. Will she agree to meet its representatives who really look after the mountains? We also know of a gate beside the estate that is being closed, it appears, at 5.30 p.m. We know that the owners of the Guinness Trust are resident in the Channel Islands and, I think, Guernsey. The Luggala estate is a precious piece of our heritage which was magnificently looked after and utilised not just for estate purposes but also for films and music by Garech de Brún whose death, sadly, took place recently. We must not allow a trust in the Channel Islands to decide that the Irish people - men, women and children - should lose what has been part of their heritage practically forever. The Minister needs to address this issue as a matter of urgency.
I thank the Deputies for their contributions. Notwithstanding petitions - there can, unfortunately, be petitions on many matters - the sale is ultimately a commercial matter between the owners of the property in question and the parties interested in purchasing. The estate is located near Roundwood and within the vicinity of the Wicklow Mountains National Park. The lands fall within objective 8 of the management plan for Wicklow Mountains National Park and are adjacent to the 1,600 acres of land the State purchased from the estate in 2006.
As such they are within the target area where acquisition by the State could be considered. However, while the estate falls within the core of the park's target area and encompasses some of the most iconic views of Wicklow - it is beautiful, as both the Deputies have described - it would not have the same strategic significance to the National Parks and Wildlife Service as the 2006 lands which linked two unconnected pieces of the national park. The 2006 purchase, in effect, provided the National Parks and Wildlife Service with a continuous tract of land stretching from the Dublin border to just north of Lugnaquilla Mountain.
Given the scarce resources for capital investment available in our national parks and mindful of the need to focus on core responsibilities relating to the management of existing parks, the Department could only consider acquiring this property if the price fell within a certain range.
Deputy Boyd Barrett is entitled to a second supplementary question.
May I move on to the next question?
We only have a minute left.
We have three minutes, do we not?
Is it three minutes? One minute left.
Therefore we cannot move on to the next question.
No. There is only one minute left.
Right.
The Deputy may ask a short supplementary question.
To refer to commercial considerations when we are discussing this piece of our national heritage is not good enough. Some things are too important to simply allow the highest bidder to come along and take them. As has been mentioned, "private property" signs are appearing on the road with views over Luggala. That is a very ominous sign of what could come down the line if the State does not step in to secure this site. It provides value in terms of tourism, walking and access to Lough Dan, and is irreplaceable. The Government needs to give firm assurances that it will not let this land go to the highest bidder with so much heritage and access for the public going a begging. That would be a shame on the State.
I call the Minister for a final response.
Will the Minister-----
No, Deputy-----
-----meet representatives of Mountaineering Ireland who, on behalf of all of us, have been custodians of this area? Is anybody willing to meet them?
The questions should have been linked but that is not a matter for the Chair. We should be more vigilant in future because two Deputies asked exactly the same question.
I thank the Leas-Cheann Comhairle.
If the Deputies want to contact my Department, we can go through the normal routes. I will not answer questions, such as the question asked by Deputy Burton, on the floor of the House. Suffice to say that my office is available for people to contact and to make appointments at any stage.
I remind the House that in 2016 my Department negotiated the extension of Wicklow Mountains National Park by purchasing almost 4,900 acres of Dublin uplands at Glenasmole at a cost of €800,000.
This specific house is recorded in the national inventory of architectural heritage and is rated as being of regional importance. My Department has also entered into a strategic partnership with Fáilte Ireland to finalise a tourism interpretive master plan.
This is a beautiful place, as both Deputies mentioned, but that does not mean the Department is in a position to purchase it. I would purchase every beautiful estate in the country if I could, but I am not in a position to do so. The vendors are aware of that. We have discussed this previously on the floor of the House. If the price falls within a certain range and my Department is in a position to purchase it, we will certainly consider doing so.
Written Answers are published on the Oireachtas website.