Malcolm Noonan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I thank the committee members for a very engaging session. There were fantastic questions and certainly a lot of food for thought for us. The point made about the provision of records and the compiling of records in the course of licensed activities is critical. Archiving that material and making it publicly available is something the National Monuments Service has done very well, particularly over the course of the pandemic when a great deal of good aerial footage and other footage, photographic and otherwise, of our national monuments has been made available online. It has added greatly to the public understanding and appreciation of our national monuments and archaeology. It is an ongoing process of engagement that we all must collectively be involved in for the protection, care and conservation of our built and archaeological heritage.

I probably forgot to mention the sectoral climate change and adaptation plan that was carried out, interdisciplinary, in the Department. Again, that entails a broad community-based approach to future-proofing our archaeological heritage and built heritage for future generations.

The Minister of the day and other relevant bodies will be given power to promote research and to provide assistance to other persons or bodies to publish relevant material and promote knowledge and awareness of monuments and archeological heritage. As I said, that is something NMS does incredibly well already, but this legislation gives effective support for that work.

From our perspective, we are delighted we have come so far with the Bill. It is great to be at the pre-legislative scrutiny stage with it. The committee's list of witnesses who are to be invited looks very exciting. I am always impressed by the work of this committee in going above and beyond what is required in pre-legislative scrutiny and to go the extra distance. That adds to the robustness and strength of the legislative process. We appreciate that ongoing engagement of the Chairman and members of the committee. My team will agree with me that the meeting has been extremely useful in all this. I thank Ms Emer Connolly, Mr. Michael MacDonagh, Mr. Seán Kirwin, Ms Nessa Foley and Mr. Seán Carpenter for the amazing work they have done to date. That will continue until we get this legislation over the line.