Cian O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay North, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

My concern is the bigger picture on this. Since 1840, according to a Heritage Council survey in 2001, 34% of archaeological monuments have been destroyed, and that has continued since 2001. That is a complete failure of the legislation we have had to date and the resources that have been put in behind it. Once a monument is destroyed, it is destroyed forever; that is it. It is gone. It has this huge historical and cultural value but it also potentially has value in tourism and economic development. When we look at the recent history of this country and the big pushback that rightly happened, Mr. Duncan Stewart was recently awarded freedom of the city by Dublin City Council. When we look back to his environmental activism when he started out, it was around trying to preserve buildings and heritage from being destroyed. While the people in Ireland since the 1960s have put huge value into preserving a lot of our heritage, we do not see that being carried through in what has happened in practice. Wood Quay was a very high-profile example but we also saw it in Carrickmines Castle and lots of other places. We are failing on the bigger picture.

I asked the Minister of State how many excavation licences had been issued over the last 20 years. I do not know the answer, I am not the Minister and am not in the Department but I would guess that something in the region of approximately 20,000 licences have been issued in the past 20 years. They generally are only issued when there are significant archaeological findings or a very strong chance of discovering them. The Minister can give me the correct number. Out of the 20,000 or so that have issued, how many archaeological findings have been preserved in situ?