Patrick O'Donovan (Limerick County, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

If I had my way, and it is above my paygrade, many buildings in public ownership that add significant historical value to the country as a whole should be in the proper clean ownership of the OPW. I am not talking about Mount Congreve in isolation or any such site. Over the past 200-odd years, we have maintained the historical value of our building network. Some organisations, whether they are trusts or receive public finance or whatever, struggle. Mount Congreve is not one that struggles and is very successful. However, if we look at the National Trust in the UK, all its historic sites are umbrellaed and there is very clean ownership of them, which has been well established. If we go back far enough, the OPW was split up, long before I was a boy, when certain people above my paygrade decided it was better to split it and have a national monuments section and a national maintenance section. Whether that is the best way to present and look after our national monuments and historical properties is a debatable point. I would certainly favour the older system, to be honest.