Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I ask the Minister of State to go back and reconsider this aspect. I will give a concrete example. I live in the centre of Clondalkin village. We have an eighth-century round tower almost directly opposite the house I live in. I am blessed to have such a beautiful monument in front of the house. It is owned by the OPW and that organisation also owns a small portion of the land. The remainder of the site adjoining it, however, was once privately owned. In the heyday of the Celtic tiger, the private owner of the land, in their wisdom, secured planning permission for a gastropub and residential development. One can have an opinion, or not, on that planning permission, but that is a separate matter.

One of the consequences in this case, though, would have been, in all likelihood, that the only access people would have had to this incredible archaeological heritage site would have been from the street. It is a narrow and busy road and, therefore, not the optimum situation. We are very lucky, because one of the few benefits of the Celtic tiger crash was that certain developments in the private sector that would otherwise have gone ahead did not do so. This land then became available and the State intervened to acquire it. South Dublin County Council then led a wonderful heritage project that now has a fantastic cultural history museum of Clondalkin. There is an incredible public garden filled with a variety of native and non-native species of plants and flowers related to the history and culture of this area. Everybody, including local residents and tourists, etc., now has access to the site to enjoy not only the garden but also this important part of our architectural heritage.

This would have been impossible if the owner of that site had not gone bust. Deputy Cian O'Callaghan's amendment speaks to an additional method of intervention in these real-life cases to ensure adequate public access to something as important as this would be viable. I know the Minister of State is not going to support the amendment, but I think the advice he has been given is not as nuanced as it should be. There might be value in re-examining this for the reasons Deputy Cian O'Callaghan outlined and in the context of the concrete example I have given. What a shame it would have been if not only the good people of Clondalkin but also the significant number of tourists we have coming into the constituency would not have had access to this site if things had transpired differently. I am just asking the Minister of State to consider this point.