Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 2 June 2004
263 Mr. Durkan asked the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government if his Department has a comprehensive register of ring forts or other heritage and cultural locations; how many archaeological excavations were carried out apart from modern development works; if excavations are planned in any such areas; if locations were damaged by developments such as forestry and building roads and houses. [16828/04]
Amharc ar fhreagraThe record of monuments and places was established under section 12 of the National Monuments (Amendment) Act 1994. It lists 120,000 archaeological sites nationwide, including ring forts. My Department is carrying out an archaeological survey. To date surveys covering nearly half the country have been published.
Over 11,000 excavation licences were issued under the National Monuments Acts. Most of them are for planning and development cases. It is not feasible to distinguish between them and excavations carried out solely for excavation purposes. A summary of all excavations carried out up to 2001 is available on the website excavations.ie. My Department does not have information on planned excavations until an application for a licence is received.
Much pressure on archaeological sites emanates from the upsurge in the general economic activity in the past number of years. My Department engages with the development sector to ensure that archaeological issues are front loaded in the development process. Codes of practice for the protection of the archaeological heritage has been agreed with a number of development bodies, including the NRA, Coillte, the ESB National Grid, Bord na Móna and the Irish Concrete Federation on the mitigation of archaeology. Discussions are ongoing with other bodies to agree further codes. My Department comments on development applications referred to it by planning authorities on the impact, inter alia, on the archaeological heritage and appropriate advice on mitigation is given.
In the past damage to monuments was caused principally by agricultural activity and the issue is still relevant. Apart from implementing the statutory protection under the Acts, my Department liaises with the farming community to prevent damage. Archaeologists from my Department give talks at courses run by Teagasc. This is only one of many initiatives.
Overall the rate of destruction of monuments here appears to be low. My Department is developing a formal monitoring programme to measure the impact on an ongoing basis.
