Mr. Seán Kirwan:

That is a key question about the structure of the legislation. To summarise, we will have two levels of protection. The first is called general protection whereby someone who wants to do work has to give three months' notice to the National Monuments Service, in effect legally to the Minister. That will apply to the prescribed monuments that are subject to regulations set out by the Minister. It will be the default for what goes into the register. The Minister will also have the option to elevate sites that are on the register to "special protection", whereby a licence is necessary in all cases to carry out work.

It is the aim that the legislation will set out criteria as to what would be elevated to special protection. Returning to a point noted earlier, one of the key things in the new legislation is that those decisions about what gets special protection can be made proactively rather than as at present, where we have to wait until the monument is threatened before we can consider making a preservation order and making it subject to a consent requirement. We will actually be able to adopt policies and practices at an early stage as to what is going to get the higher level.