Amendment No. 1, in the names of Deputies Quill and de Valera, arises out of Committee proceedings. Amendment No. 3 is related. It is suggested that amendments Nos. 1 and 3 be taken together.
Heritage Bill, 1994 [Seanad] :Report Stage.
I move amendment No. 1:
In page 5, between lines 11 and 12, to insert the following:
"(g) railways and related buildings,".
On Committee Stage I argued at length for the inclusion of railway lines and railway buildings as items of heritage. I did so for a variety of reasons which I will not expand on at any great length now because, happily, the Minister has accepted the substance of my amendment. I am grateful to him for so doing and am convinced that we have in place a much better Bill.
Most of us will recognise that railways have a place of honour and affection in the folk memory and social history of Ireland. In most rural parishes through which railway lines pass generations of families worked in the construction of the railways and later in the running of the railways and the delivery of a public service which was, for its time and, indeed, for any time, an excellent one for the general public.
It is important to keep all that alive in terms of our heritage. In addition the architecture of the railway buildings — by that I do not just mean railway cottages in which railway families lived, which are beautiful in their own right, but railway station houses, bridges, viaducts and battlements that were built in conjunction with the laying of the tracks — almost without exception, is of very great beauty and ought, as far as possible, be preserved as part of our heritage. They are a testimony to a level of craftsmanship that was in Ireland at that time and ought to be honoured and, hopefully, maintained and passed on to another generation. It ought not to be lost.
Very fundamentally, railway lines ought to be maintained and preserved as public rights-of-way. They are the property of the general public and ought to be held in trust by this generation for subsequent generations. I have found in recent times, to my utter dismay, that farmers are beginning to encroach and extend their holdings across railway lines and railway tracks, thereby incorporating them into their own holdings as if they were private property which they are not. That practice should be stopped.
Debate adjourned.
Sitting suspended at 1.30 p.m. and resumed at 2.30 p.m.