It will be a shock because I do not believe it will happen. I welcome the Bill because it addresses many important issues in the planning and heritage areas. I congratulate Deputy Quill on introducing it. I am sure the Deputy, like all of us, will accept that the Bill is not perfect. No Bill that comes before this House is perfect but listening to the Minister of State last night one would think that every Bill must be perfect. Bills are not always perfect when they come before this House but our work allows us to perfect them. I am certain this Bill can be amended and improved in committee and we would all like to participate in that process.
Fianna Fáil had a Bill in preparation which addressed some of the issues dealt with in Deputy Quill's Bill. We would be happy for that Bill to go into committee and for our amendments to be considered, rather than a separate Bill being produced. In other words, the two Bills could be married. I look forward to the Government accepting this Bill and sending it to a special committee so that we can consider amendments.
A number of issues need to be addressed, some of which are mentioned in the Bill. We favour the idea of preserving streetscapes rather than single buildings. Listed buildings should be put on a statutory footing, a move we support and will pursue. Heritage officers should be appointed to continually police the use of listed buildings and ensure they are not totally neglected or destroyed, as has happened to many buildings. We are all aware of examples.
We favour the imposition of severe penalties for neglect of listed buildings or actions that lead to the destruction of such buildings. In particular, we should use the planning code in a more effective way by applying severe penalties for planning breaches where listed buildings are involved.
The Grammar School in Drogheda is an example of the type of destruction that can occur under our planning code. They are some of the areas we would like to see addressed on Committee Stage.
The Minister of State, Deputy McManus, said last night that if we enact legislation without the necessary administrative and financial support we only bring our legislation into disrepute. I am delighted the Minister of State has been converted to some form of rational behaviour. Her party in Opposition had instant answers to everything, but in Government, it appears to take a different approach to this and many other issues. The Minister of State appears oblivious to the fact that the Government's failure to act in the past 19 months by not addressing the issues in this Bill has brought the Government and its promises into disrepute.
This Bill represents all-party concern and consensus about the problems with our built heritage. The Minister of State, in her remarks last night and on "Morning Ireland" this morning, injected an unnecessarily partisan and shrill tone to the debate. Her facetiousness was underlined by the paucity of the Government's record over the past 19 months. The Government has produced nothing in this area except an unpublished report. It will not be published but circulated to Ministers so they can prevaricate for another period of months, perhaps for as long as they remain in Government. The Minister of State should announce tonight that the report will be published in tandem with Committee Stage consideration of this Bill. The only acceptable alternative to this legislation is a better proposal from the Minister of State and that has not been forthcoming. I hope this Bill will be allowed to go to committee.
In listing the shortcomings of the Bill, the Minister of State highlighted the extent of her activity over the past 19 months. The Government's response was churlish and unfortunate. The Minister of State has successfully undermined whatever credibility this Government had on the conservation issue. My colleagues, Deputies de Valera and Ryan, have set out in detail the Fianna Fáil response to the Bill and our general policy on built heritage.
I will briefly underline the many positive aspects of this Bill. New and valuable legal definitions of what constitutes built heritage are introduced. Sections dealing with the interiors and surrounds of houses afford, for the first time, legal protection to this part of our built heritage. The exclusion of demolition of listed features from the planning process will be ended. The Bill provides for mandatory listing of all buildings constituting the built heritage. These provisions must constitute the basis of any effective programme of action in this area. The Minister of State last night identified these measures as essential. However, in pointing out the problems that would be encountered in implementing the Bill the Minister of State, perhaps without meaning to, offered a litany of the actions the Government has failed to take on this issue in the past 19 months.
The destruction of our built heritage continues apace. There were many references in this debate to 15 Usher's Quay, location for James Joyce's short story "The Dead", which is practically derelict. We can offer many other examples of neglect throughout the country. There are also many examples of built heritage that are under immediate threat. Relentless pressure from commercial forces is more corrosive than the preceding years of neglect. It is extraordinary that the Government, whose programme included an explicit commitment to protect our built heritage, opposed this worthwhile measure while failing to bring forward even one positive Government proposal. That the responsible Minister of State choose to oppose it in a gratuitously partisan fashion has added insult to injury. She added further injury through her attitude on the radio this morning.
Earlier this year my colleague. Deputy Ryan, produced a Fianna Fáil policy paper on Georgian Dublin. It set out a comprehensive policy for the preservation and rejuvenation of our Georgian heritage. Before the publication of this Bill, Fianna Fáil was working on its own Private Members' Bill to deal with listed buildings and their interiors. It is unacceptable that the Opposition parties, despite their paltry resources, can produce programmes and Bills while the Government can produce nothing in a period of 19 months. It underlines the fact that there is no real commitment to this issue on the part of the Government.
The carping response by the Minister of State has effectively ended the previous bipartisan and constructive approach of all parties to this issue. Fianna Fáil is no longer prepared to accept the bona findes of the Minister of State and her colleagues on heritage issues. I view with suspicion the failure to produce the interdepartmental report on preservation. This Bill was published weeks ago and there is no good reason the report could not have been available by now. There is also no good reason it should not be made available to the public.
I congratulate Deputy Quill on her work. The Government's response has been disgraceful. The Minister of State could offer nothing positive but excuses about needing time to study the report which is already on hand. She had not studied the report although I would have expected somebody who had the task of responding to this Bill to have at least studied the report in great detail. The arrogance displayed by the Minister of State would do credit to somebody who had been in office for at least a decade and who had totally lost touch with reality and the people.