Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Is the OPW looking to take on a greater number of national monuments? At the moment, 1,000 or so are mentioned. We can all list different ones in different areas that are in danger or are neglected. Is there a strategy to pursue the purchase through CPO or negotiation for additional national monuments given how small the number is? There is also the additional onus on the State to preserve and protect them once they have them so that is an additional cost. We are blessed with so many different sites in this country. Nobody expects the State to take over 130,000 sites, most of which, thankfully, are buried somewhere. We do not know their full extent so we do not want to take them over but it would be a pity if some work is not done with regard to the ones above ground about which people often speak.

This witnesses from the IPI raised the anomaly between the record of the protected structures and national monuments. Is it hoped that the new legislation will try to combine both in the one location so that those planning developments have one port of call and nobody can try to get away with something by saying they did not know it was a monument or the duties involved?