Mr. Niall ? Donnch?:

I thank the Deputy for welcoming the acquisition. The straight answer to his question is that it has been acquired by the NPWS and our priority is nature. Some of our parks have what might be broadly termed as parkland parts as well, if I can use that term more widely than it is perhaps intended. That is an element of what is here.

There are 5,000 years of history here, however, and 5,000 years of farming history. This has been agrarian for as long as we can see back over the records. There are two designations in there with 14 different habitats and 54 different species. An incredible amount of work was done by the private owners in documenting those species, the farming for nature piece and the records they have been able to hand over to us on the types of habitats and so forth. Our objective is to build on that, but to build on that for the public value as well. That will be challenging.

When I talk about the 5,000 years of history, there are 5,000 years of archaeological and built heritage as well as the farming history. There are some incredible henges. The Deputy will be very familiar with it. There will, therefore, be a certain curtailment of activities around it. Our purpose is to protect nature. An acquisition by the service will be foremost. Right now, we are concluding the purchase of that. Like all land transactions, it is complex. We are working with our colleagues in the National Monuments Service and Office of Public Works on a master plan to bring it to the public, probably in stages, while continuing the important biodiversity work in the context of the management of the SAC, SPA and the farming for nature piece of it. We said on acquisition that we are probably looking at 36 months to get this right. This is not public ready. It just is not.

There is a significant amount of work to be done on public health and safety, access and a traffic management plan. The Deputy will perhaps be familiar with the challenges in Newgrange, Oldbridge and so on. The challenge is to unify the three sites in terms of the public management of those access and transport pieces and ticketing in all of that. We are working closely with our colleagues in those two agencies for a joint approach on transport, accessibility and ticketing.

It is challenging, but it is very exciting to be in this position to bring a national park to the public that is very different, as Mr. Bleadsdale referenced, from what we have. It has elements of each national park but the collective is very different and that 5,000 years of archaeological history is just stunning. What that will yield around the farming component and the cultural and political history for students and the public alike is hugely exciting. The nature piece just bowled us over. It is a really stunning part of the country and I say that as somebody who grew up in Killarney. We were privileged to be part of the acquisition team for this on behalf of the Irish people.