Olivia Mitchell (Dublin South, Fine Gael)

The county council, notwithstanding the fact that it did not accept that the discovery at Carrickmines was a national monument, applied for permission to interfere with it, because that was the only way the stalemate could be broken. The Minister gave his consent but that was appealed to the courts and it was subsequently lost on a technicality — nothing to do with the merits of the case.

A major problem with this Bill is that it does not deal with the designation of a monument and that is a glaring omission because it leaves every road project open to the accusations that its path goes through a national monument. We could come to the ludicrous stage that every time a shovel is put in the ground and comes up with a three leg pot it will be called a national monument. There are people who want to subvert the roads programme for a variety of very selfish reasons in many cases — certainly reasons that have nothing to do with the archaeology — and we have to protect against that. The designation of a national monument must be clarified. Everybody's natural instinct is to preserve our heritage.

Natural concern was abused in the case of Carrickmines. People believed that a horrible crime was being perpetrated on what was a wonderful castle. They genuinely believed those accusations and that something valuable was being destroyed. Others simply did not want the road built and were professional objectors. That became clear when they were interviewed and their archaeological interest flagged; they immediately switched to becoming experts on planning and traffic management, issues on which they had no expertise. Even if they had, the time was long past when they should be raising such hares.

Legislation is urgently needed and I know the Minister is working on a consolidating Bill, which he hopes to bring before the House later in the year. The Taoiseach stated yesterday that it would be next year, but I hope that it does not cause problems for other roads in the meantime.

When an archaeological discoverey is made after a scheme is approved, the Minister may at his discretion give a direction to remove, restore or record the find — in other words the Minister decides what will happen next. I know some people object to this as they maintain that it gives the Minister too much power. I do not see it that way because the Minister has always had the power to consent to the destruction of a national monument and that in fact was what was struck down on a technicality. I believe the buck has to stop. We have to have faith that the Minister with responsibility for heritage has some interest in preserving our heritage and has the public good at heart. It should not be forgotten that the Minister only becomes involved at the end of a long process, including an archaeological assessment as part of the environmental impact statement.

In view of the powers being given to the Minister and that archaeological treasures are often buried treasures, it behoves all agencies to ensure that the initial investigation and the environmental impact assessment are absolutely exhaustive and carried out in the most thorough manner and limit the number of cases that end up on the desk of the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government. The tragedy of what happened in Carrickmines is that the hares were not raised in time, when they could have been. With more sensible and sober heads, the issue could have been resolved.

The Minister has great praise for the archaeologists, but I wonder if we get value for money. One can now make a great deal of money from archaeology as a result of environmental impact statements. No excavation takes place until there is a road scheme. Are archaeologists as thorough as they should be? Three very prominent road schemes have been undertaken and it seems that the most precious archaeology is being found right in the path of the roadway.

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