Mary Seery Kearney (Fine Gael)
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Deputy Higgins has indicated that I can go first. I thank the witnesses for their opening statements, which I very much appreciate.

I want to pose questions on two very distinct and separate issues I encounter. The first is that since the 1990s, there are two fantastic groups in the Chapelizod area, namely, the Chapelizod Tidy Towns group and the Chapelizod Heritage Society. The person who is central to both of those groups is a man called Peter Kavanagh. He has been doing extraordinary work on heritage and the preservation of monuments and history in the Chapelizod area. One of the things they have been attempting to do for the past 25 years relates to the preservation and care of a 5,000 year old cyst or cromlech that is just inside the walls of the Phoenix Park at the Chapelizod pedestrian gate. This was unearthed in the 1800s. It is documented and there is a large model of this monument in the Phoenix Park visitors' centre. When it was unearthed in the 1800s, two human remains were found under it as well as grave articles that are in the National Museum. The visitors' centre has a mock-up of the monument and a history of it but the item itself remains unpreserved and unlisted. It is not cared for other than the work done by the heritage society itself, and it is not entitled to intervene where there are splits and cracks from frost damage. People possibly think it is a picnic table when they see it because it is like a small dolmen, which is how I describe it in my ignorance. Here we have something that is of considerable heritage value and is a national monument, yet it is sitting there and deteriorating year on year and not being preserved. What does the Bill do for that and how does it support the 25 years of advocacy on the part of Peter Kavanagh?

The second issue is the exemption for religious sites when it comes to monuments and structures. No one is overseeing the protection of religious sites or religious institutions. Will the proposed Bill cover modern sites such as residential institutions, industrial schools and Magdalen laundries, particularly as such places certainly reach the threshold of interest? There may be structures that are of archaeological merit but also within them are graves, both marked and unmarked. The proposition is that graves should be included in the inventory of national monuments. Whoever wishes can answer those questions.