Mr. Ian Doyle:

The point we made in our opening is that it is a very complex area to address in primary legislation. There is a facility in one of the heads — the specific one is mentioned in our written submission — for the Minister to produce statutory guidance on a matter like this that a planning authority would have to take note of.

There are various mechanisms for this. In one of the heads, the definition of “monument” includes a reference to the land around it, so that is a start. There are other elements of the existing national monuments legislation that have not been all that successful in doing this. In the 1987 Act, there is a reference to archaeological areas. That was not really tried, however. The Planning and Development Act 2000 has a clause for landscape conservation areas but that has not been successful. That tells its own story. It is a difficult issue to address through the secondary legislation but it is an issue that the Heritage Council has been saying is quite important. As stated earlier, this is something we would like to see teased out and addressed through the statutory guidance element of this proposed legislation.