Noel Coonan (Tipperary North, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

Ba mhaith liom comhghairdeas a dhéanamh le Mr. Newman. I welcome him to the meeting and wish him well in his role. I was interested in one of his opening remarks, that being, one can take the man from the bog but one cannot take the bog from the man. Bearing this in mind and speaking personally or on behalf of the council, will Mr. Newman outline how important is the preservation of bogs to our heritage?

One of the problems with the subject of heritage is that it seems to overlap various Departments and bodies, for example, the OPW, the National Parks and Wildlife Service, NPWS, and the Heritage Council. Mr. Newman referred to cutbacks and how he would like the council to have more money. We all wish we could be in a position to provide more, but can the council achieve better value for money? In some cases, bureaucracy and excessive regulation are applied to local communities that are undertaking projects. Local councils' heritage officers do a great deal of valuable work, but there are many areas that they do not reach. I have in mind Loughmore Castle and St. Cronan's Church in Roscrea, where a wall was dangerously close to falling down. For a community to preserve the buildings in question, they would need to engage in-----