Ms Caitríona Ryan:

I am head of the built heritage policy unit in the Department. I thank the Deputy for his question on the policy on architecture. I am conscious we intended to publish this policy a little bit earlier. We got caught in the space of the last 10% taking almost 90% of the time. We got caught in an endless circle of consultation, especially because there were so many other policies coming out at the same time and we want to tie in with Housing for All and the town centre first initiative. We now have a draft ready. The Deputy asked about the final consultation. For the final consultation, we consulted finally with all Departments. We did not do a broad consultation because we felt we might never get it over the line. I am glad to say we do have a policy now ready to go the copy editor.

The Deputy mentioned implementation of the policy. That is a very good point. We need a strong delivery board to make sure this policy is implemented. We will have a delivery board, probably to be chaired jointly by senior officials in our Department and the principal architect or State architect in the Office of Public Works, so that it will be implemented at a very high level to ensure the actions are implemented early in the new year once the policy is published.