Mr. Seán Kirwan:

The Chairman has noted an important innovation in the legislation. Indeed, there is a significant weakness in the current legislation. As we discussed, there is little express provision in the current legislation regarding consultation with owners. It might be implied under constitutional law that there is a duty to consult before taking an administrative decision to put something into one of the existing mechanisms but the difficulty in that regard is that while the consultation is taking place, no protection is applicable. There is a gap there. The general scheme of the Bill - the detail of this will have to be worked out in drafting - envisages interim protection such that once the Minister advises a party that consideration is being given to entering the relevant interest on the register, the default would be to have a general level of protection kick in straight away. Obviously, if the ultimate decision of the Minister is not to enter it on the register, that protection would fall away. If the Minister enters it on the register, it becomes a registered monument.

This is a key aspect of the current proposals. Moving away from the current legislation it will allow us to have those things we discussed earlier, respecting people's ownership and property rights and participation in the decision making process on what goes into the register, but without creating the opportunity that action is taken precipitately by some owners.