Mr. Ian Lumley:

I can summarise it briefly. The advisory council provision was a key part of the National Monuments Act 1930. It comprised a number of external advisory bodies including the Royal Irish Academy, the Royal Institute of Architects of Ireland and the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, but it was allowed to fall into abeyance. We pointed out that there is a very effective advisory council regime applying in Northern Ireland. There is an opportunity now with this legislation to match what is being done in Northern Ireland, to look at what is being done in other jurisdictions, to revive that concept of independent oversight and to consider a wider potential number of nominating bodies including for example, the Local Authority Archaeologists Network. We strongly recommend that such a provision is incorporated into this Bill.