Mr. Ian Lumley:

We are all very familiar with the application of European Union law and directives, such as the birds, habitats and environmental impact assessment directives, which have resulted in initiation of infringement actions by the European Commission and European court judgments against Ireland and actions taken within the Irish courts that have resulted in Oireachtas legislation being struck down as not compliant with European law.

However, Council of Europe and UN conventions occupy a different category. They do not have a direct application in national law unless transposed into national legislation. We signed up to the Valletta Convention in 1992 and adopted it in 1997, but then there is an obligation on the Government to implement the provisions of that convention in its domestic law and administration. We have clearly been laggard in doing so with Valletta because when one goes back to the Granada Convention on architectural heritage in 1985, we introduced the legislation in 1999 and it was incorporated into the Planning and Development Act 2000. We are clearly way behind in addressing Valletta.

I remember, after the whole controversy over the M3 motorway in the Skreen Valley between Tara and the Hill of Skreen, the big issue there was that the definition given to the archaeological landscape was too narrow and not enough consideration was given to the relationship of the archaeological complex at the Hill of Tara between the Skreen Valley and the Hill of Skreen on the eastern side. Of course, exactly as predicted, it was a fiasco because while a geophysical survey was done, proper site investigation was not and it was only in the course of the road construction that the Lismullin henge was discovered. A henge is a generally circular enclosure. Everybody knows Stonehenge in Britain but most Irish henges are earthen-bank henges and would have been-----