Mr. Seán Kirwan:

The definitions of "relevant thing" and "relevant interest" underpin what gets into the register. A "relevant thing" can be a structure from any date. It could be something that was built five or ten years ago. There is no date restriction. Being of "relevant interest" includes architectural interest. As Mr. Carpenter explained, there are further criteria that guide the Minister which can be fleshed out as drafting proceeds. There is clearly plenty of scope in the general scheme for quite recent structures on the basis of being of architectural or historic interest. Even if they are not of particular architectural interest but had an historic association there would be no difficulty if the Minister of the day was satisfied the applicable criteria had been met for them to go into the register.

Clearly there is a policy issue regarding which piece of legislation is involved, as the Minister of State touched on. There can be debate as to whether planning law is a better way to deal with some contemporary structures rather than legislation such as this with a central authority. That is more a question of the implementation of the legislation rather than its underlying structure. I emphasise there would be no difficulty if it was considered appropriate by the Minister of the day to put in the register a structure of quite recent date if it was seen as being of architectural interest and the other criteria have been met.

Earlier I mentioned there is provision in the legislation for the idea of a formal system for developing policy on what would go in the register and how various pieces of the legislation would be used. This is an important aspect with regard to how the legislation will be implemented over the years and there can be ongoing development as to what will be the policies and priorities regarding what goes in the register. The starting point is that the Bill is intended to be enabling legislation when it is fully drafted. It is broadly drafted, which will give a lot of discretion in future as to what will go in the register.