Shane Cassells (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The Hill of Tara, a 5,000-year-old national monument in the heart of Meath, was attacked by vandals on Monday night, the third time in ten years this has happened. Some amadán took it upon himself or herself to print graffiti on the Lia Fáil, the Stone of Destiny where high kings were crowned for thousands of years. The amadán daubed the word "fake" on all four sides. The only thing that is fake is the halfwit who did this.

This comes at a time when the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage has launched a Tara conservation management plan. The document was brought to members of Meath County Council last month. Some 200,000 visitors access the 100-acre site in County Meath every year. People enjoy a 5 km looped walkway.

The conservation plan caused a lot of heated debate in Meath because we recognise the value of Tara as a sacred site. The Department and OPW sought things like viewing platforms so that people could view it from a distance. In Meath we used this site, including places like the Mound of the Hostages, as something that is sacred to us. Seán Boylan brought Meath teams there on the morning of an all-Ireland to feel the spirit of thousands of generations of dead Meath men flowing through their veins before they went to Dublin to beat Cork. This is in our DNA.

The site is used by Meath people as an open and recreational space and a living monument that is enjoyed. The report proposes things like CCTV on a sacred site and the possibility of the site being closed full stop. I ask that the Department, OPW and council cool the jets and take stock of the situation. A national monument cannot be closed off to people because of the actions of an ignorant few.