Mr. Brian Keaney:

Certainly, to respond to that, there is potentially an anomaly in the legislation at the moment whereby if the Minister was to enter a monument on to the register of monuments, our view is that it should automatically then go on to the record of protected structures because that ministerial designation is done at a national level. The anomaly is that at a local level, the record of protected structures and the function of putting buildings on or off lies with the elected members. It is fine that there is an exercise in subsidiarity there but I think there is a higher bar when it comes to ministerial designations.

For the avoidance of confusion, if the Minister was to designate a monument to be part of the register of monuments under his powers, that should automatically transfer via the Planning and Development Act 2000 and become part of the record of protected structures and, therefore, have that protection under the development plan of the relevant local authority.