Thomas Gould (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 269:

In page 150, line 25, to delete “5 years” and substitute “7 years”.

Sinn Féin believes that stronger penalties should be put in place for violation of our heritage legislation. The current enforcement is already inadequate. Even with the penalties in the legislation, prosecutions are very rare. There have only been six in the last ten years under the National Monuments Act. We saw an example last week in Rome where someone who put graffiti on a block in the Coliseum is facing a possible five-year prison sentence. If someone was to demolish Newgrange tomorrow, they would get a similar sentence. The stiff penalty shows the attitudes of Romans and other Europeans to their heritage and their monuments. We believe the proposed fines of €10,000 and €50,000 will not deter large developers or corporations who want to ignore the legislation.

Our amendments would allow courts more leeway to increase the deterrents. We propose increasing the maximum sentences from three and five years to five and seven years, respectively. The maximum fines should be increased to €10 million, or €5 million in the case of fines for each stage of the violation. We ask the Minister of State to look at this on Report Stage. It comes down to the fact that we need a proper deterrent. We need something that gets the attention of the large developers and corporations.