Ms Virginia Teehan:

I thank the Chair and committee members for inviting the Heritage Council to present today. My name is Virginia Teehan, I am chief executive officer of the Heritage Council. It is a pleasure for me to meet with the committee again and I thank the committee for its continuing interest in heritage. I am accompanied today by my colleague, Mr. Ian Doyle, head of conservation. The Heritage Council’s remit is very broad. Today’s topic, that of the monuments and archaeological heritage Bill, is of particular interest to us, as we have over many years engaged in the drafting of this through expert advisory groups.

The Heritage Council, which was established in 1995, inherited powers under the National Monuments Acts 1930 to 2004, specifically the role and responsibilities of the National Monuments Advisory Council. The Heritage Council has specific responsibilities under section 6 of the Heritage Act, which states:

The functions of the Council shall be to propose policies and priorities for the identification, protection, preservation and enhancement of the national heritage, including monuments, archaeological objects, heritage objects, architectural heritage, flora, fauna, wildlife habitats, landscapes, seascapes, wrecks, geology, heritage gardens, parks and inland waterways.

Since its foundation, the Heritage Council has undertaken extensive research, policy development, delivery and evaluation to support the planning, and management of Ireland’s unique archaeological heritage. Our commitment to supporting archaeological heritage is evident by our initiation and management of the initiatives I will now outline.

The Irish walled towns network, IWTN, was formed by the Heritage Council in 2005 to unite and co-ordinate the strategic efforts of local authorities and other stakeholders involved in the management, conservation and enhancement of historic walled towns in Ireland, both North and South. The Heritage Council offers annual grants to the 29 towns that participate in the IWTN for the conservation and care of medieval town defences.

On the basis of policy advice provided to the Government on research needs in Irish archaeology, the council set up the Irish national strategic archaeological research, INSTAR, programme in 2008. This funded a number of key collaborative projects in areas such as neolithic agriculture, ancient human remains and early medieval settlement. This scheme has recently been relaunched by the National Monuments Service in collaboration with the Heritage Council and the Irish Research Council, and is now known as INSTAR+.

The Heritage Council is the primary funder of the discovery programme, the centre for archaeology and heritage research which was established by the Government in 1991. It is a company limited by guarantee and covers areas of activity which concern climate change and coastal archaeology and the completion of the field survey at the Hill of Tara, County Meath.

The Heritage Council’s adopt a monument scheme aims to empower local communities to take an active role in understanding, engaging with and protecting their local heritage. Community groups that apply to take part in the scheme select an archaeological or historic monument in their locality. If they are successful in their application to join the scheme, they literally adopt the monument. The scheme now has a membership of 20 communities across the country who are engaged in caring for and learning about their local monuments. After a public call, five new groups in Kerry, Cork, Donegal, Monaghan and Kildare will join this initiative in 2022.

The Heritage Council funds community archaeologists in partnership with the local authorities and farming bodies in Galway, Sligo, south Dublin, Dublin city, Roscommon and the Burren. In the Burren and the Rathcroghan area of Roscommon, these are part of European innovation partnerships intended to demonstrate how farming can be beneficial for biodiversity, landscape and monuments. We will expand this scheme in 2022 to counties Clare, Donegal and Wicklow.

Furthermore, the Heritage Council has produced several policy documents and guidance notes to support local authorities and communities in caring for archaeology, for example, notes on historic graveyards, rock art and ogham stones. Working with a range of partners, including the National Monuments Service, the Office of Public Works, private landowners and local authorities, we have also supported the completion of conservation and management plans for important complexes like the Hill of Uisneach, County Westmeath, the Woodstown Viking age site in Waterford, and the Hill of Tara, County Meath, as well as a research framework for the Brú na Bóinne world heritage site, County Meath.

Today, we are here to talk about the revised general scheme of the monuments and archaeological heritage Bill, which, at 84 heads, is a major piece of proposed heritage legislation. Given that the provisions of the 1930 Act are still in force almost 100 years later, the proposed Bill is important for Ireland’s heritage because it will guide and regulate practice and protection for several generations to come. It is also likely to be of interest internationally. We note the significant time and effort that has been invested during this lengthy process. The Heritage Council welcomes the opportunity to comment on the revised general scheme of the monuments and archaeological heritage Bill. The council has engaged in this process since 2008 via the expert advisory committee and, prior to this, in an earlier review during the period 1999 to 2001.

The legislative framework protecting archaeological resources in Ireland is governed principally by the National Monuments Acts, together with relevant provisions of the National Cultural Institutions Act 1997. Under the existing legislation, a number of mechanisms have been applied in order to secure the protection of archaeological monuments, including the register of historic monuments and the placing of preservation orders and temporary preservation orders on endangered monuments. The disparate statutory sources for the above mechanisms are indicative of the piecemeal nature of the legislative framework’s development, with the consolidation of this framework being one of the principal aims of the Bill, which we welcome.

We support the purpose of the proposed Bill, which seeks: first, to streamline the current multiple systems of monument protection into a single register with two levels of protection for monuments; second, to harmonise the system for protection of underwater cultural heritage with that for archaeological heritage on land; third, to introduce a statutory reporting scheme with associated automatic legal protection for new discoveries of archaeological sites; fourth, to revoke the various forms of licences and consents that exist under the Acts, which would be replaced with an integrated licensing system for works and other activities regulated under it; and, fifth, to introduce and provide for clear civil enforcement powers in regard to contraventions of the proposed Bill.