Mr. Seán Carpenter:

With regard to the archaeological objects, what is being proposed here is to make the current position explicit. Under the existing legislative framework, there are some issues where there is no known owner, what that means and whether a landowner could constitute a known owner. The purpose of head 35 is to make it clear that the finder of the object in question or the owner of the land upon which that object is found will not be owner of the object by default. Again, the State will be the owner of an archaeological object found where there is no known owner and that cannot include the finder or the landowner in most circumstances.

Regarding the guidelines, it will be very specific. The Minister will be able to issue guidelines on historical heritage, which is a wider term than just archaeological heritage. In terms of environmental impact assessments and how they interact with historical heritage and so forth, we will be able to issue a set of guidelines that have a statutory basis. Then there is the general carrying out of the functions of local authorities and how they might interact with historical heritage. We will be able to have guidelines issued to which they can refer.