Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Section 5 of the National Monuments (Amendment) Act 2004 includes the following:

In respect of a national monument of which the Minister or a local authority are the owners or the guardians or in respect of which a preservation order is in force, it shall not be lawful for any person to do any of the following things in relation to such national monument:(a) to demolish or remove it wholly or in part or to disfigure, deface, alter, or in any manner injure or interfere with it, or ...

That is how seriously the law looks on this issue. What effect will this have in the future? Let us suppose I was the owner of a wreck elsewhere in the waters around Ireland and I sought to prevent a methodology being imposed or to avoid having archaeologist as part of the diving team. Surely I could point to the licence in this instance.