Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 11 May 2022
103. Deputy Paul Kehoe asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage if his Department has taken further steps to protect the archaeological history of the entirety of Vinegar Hill, County Wexford; if he will consider designating the entire hill as a protected national heritage site; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [23562/22]
Amharc ar fhreagraThe National Monuments Service of my Department has commissioned a wide ranging and detailed study of historic battlefields up to and including those of the 1798 Rebellion, known as the Irish Battlefields Project. I am pleased to be able to advise the Deputy that over the last year substantial progress has been made towards formal publication of the detailed results of that project. In the interim, location points for a range of battlefields have been included on my Department’s online Historic Environment Viewer, and included in this is the Vinegar Hill Battlefield. While this does not of itself confer statutory protection on such battlefields, I am satisfied that a range of information is available to planning authorities so as to ensure that historic battlefields receive appropriate consideration in the statutory planning process, though it is of course a matter for each planning authority to adopt appropriate objectives in that regard under its statutory development plan.
Any formal designation having statutory effect under the existing National Monuments Acts could only be done if the applicable criteria under those Acts are met, in particular that the site met the relevant statutory definitions of “monument” and “national monument”. As the Deputy will be aware, the Revised General Scheme for the Monuments and Archaeological Heritage Bill is currently receiving Pre-Legislative Scrutiny. I believe that enactment and implementation in the near future of this comprehensively modernised and strengthened legislation, combined with the detailed publication of the results of the Irish Battlefields Project, will present the best opportunity to consider the question of designation of historic battlefields additional to the protection that may be afforded them through the planning process. My Department will also be reviewing, in the light of that publication, what further measures may be appropriate to further strengthen the recognition of historic battlefields in the planning process, in particular the question of provision of guidance on this to planning authorities.
