Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Amendments Nos. 599 and 600 relate to obligations on the planning authorities and the commission to have regard to certain matters. The matter we are trying to introduce here is to ensure that the context in which a protected structure exists, and not just the structure itself, is also taken into account when the planning authorities and commission are making any findings or reviewing planning in relation to it. I explained in my earlier contribution that the context around a monument is very important because if we change the context, it often changes how we look at that monument. It can end up being dwarfed or shadowed by buildings built next to it which have not actually interfered with the structure itself. The buildings are interfering with the context and I gave a number of examples. If the Hammerson plan, which has been endorsed by the Tánaiste, is allowed to go ahead in Moore Street, the changes in that plan would have the effect of changing the context of the street itself, rather than protecting it. The national monument as it existed under this Government was four buildings until the High Court decided that it was a whole terrace. There was a context to that street and therefore you change it once you start building high-rise buildings on it or buildings that take away from the impact of that. The heritage value or the character of a building can be directly affected if we do not take the context into account. In an urban setting, that can often mean that when planning permission is granted for buildings there is a requirement that they are set back in some way, or stepped back if they are high rise, to allow for the full effect of a building. In rural areas, it can mean that developments are not built at all because the context of the landscape and the sight lines would be affected and therefore the beauty or effect of an historical protected structure could be impacted. What may have been a spectacular sight could be negatively affected. Let us take the example of the fine stately homes built by the ascendancy around the country, some of which were burned or wrecked during the War of Independence. If someone built a cluster of high-rise agricultural or industrial buildings or apartment blocks next to them, the context of those buildings would be altered. Many of them are protected structures because of the era in which they were built, with some dating as far back as the 16th century or even earlier.