Ms Deirdre Mahony:

Before I address that point, I should say that we would be delighted to sit down and engage with Deputy Ó Cuív. We have reached out to the directors of the National Museum of Ireland and the National Archives of Ireland. Collectively, we would be very happy to engage on this because where there is an opportunity to get something of social and historical interest, or of artistic or other cultural value, we would never say "No" to adding it to the national collections. We are very happy to consult on that.

I do not have the date the Deputy requested. There are two dimensions to it. There is the cut-off date but there is also the "no known owner" piece which the Deputy is seeking to address in the Bill. Objects found in a field are less likely to have an identifiable owner so I believe there are two dimensions to that. If it is okay with the Deputy, I will come back to him with that date.

The other matter the Deputy raised was in respect of correspondence, where a letter found in a box and written in the 1780s might be of very significant social interest and of social and historical value. Being conscious of the role and function of the national collections, it strikes me that there could be materials of more appropriate interest to our local museums as they may tell very important local stories. In the future consultation, we might look at engaging the local network of museums as well to see how they would interact with the legislation and what role they could play in safeguarding these important artefacts.