Ms Rosemary Collier:

I would concur with the Heritage Council. There are indications through the national development plan, NDP, which has been published that allocations have been made available for national monuments, in particular. In my opening statement I referred to the funding mechanism and the relationship between the Office of Public Works and the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage in the funding of capital works. We have a very good relationship with our colleagues there. That particular allocation across the lifetime of the NDP is most welcome and will go directly towards the work that is required in caring for the national monuments.

The other provision is that we are funded through the Oireachtas so we will continue to make the case through the annual Estimates process. There is a mechanism for Departments to work through the Estimates process and the voted expenditure through the Oireachtas in order to make the case for resourcing and for anything that comes downstream of this Bill that becomes a resource requirement. Those are my observations on how we might address those challenges as we go forward.