Dr. Ruth Johnson:

In regard to the local authority resourcing, unlike heritage officers, of whom there are 31 across all of the local authorities, which is fantastic, at this point in time seven local authorities have archaeological officers. They are engaged in different kinds of work, such as providing professional advice and expertise to the executive and councillors. In the meeting on 27 January, the Minister and the Chairman both expressed an interest in seeing more officers in local authorities across the country to supplement the work of conservation officers and heritage officers, and supplement that expertise across the board.

Our members do different kinds of work. Most of us are engaged in planning and development advice to local authorities and we work between the Planning and Development Act, with cognisance of the National Monuments Act, and the record of protected structures, the national inventory of architectural heritage and the other inventories that are applicable. We find that some types of monuments or features fall between legislative stools. For instance, our industrial heritage was raised by Senator Moynihan. It is our experience across the board of the network that this is a problem we would like to see addressed in this new Bill, if possible.

In terms of the definition of a monument, the current definition is broad but there is a lot of confusion on the current legislation among members of the public as to what is a national monument, what is a recorded monument, what is a registered monument and so on. We welcome the clarity in the new Bill but we have a lot of questions about the new terminology that is being introduced. Hopefully, that answers the question.