Trevor Sargent (Dublin North, Green Party)

The Minister's comment proves my point. We are heading for another argument even before I have finished making my point. I will move on to my next point to avoid inviting further intervention.

The e-mail I have received, which runs to six pages, gives me to understand that there is a considerable amount of tension, even in the Department, between those who have a remit to protect archaeology and those who regard archaeology as at best a necessary evil and at worst something of a nuisance. A certain amount of intimidation is taking place, whereby people are being asked not to make life any more difficult by those who would prefer if sites were not discovered because they fear they will create problems.

Other speakers have contrasted procedures here with those in place elsewhere and asked how other countries manage to build roads. Archaeology is given considerable priority in other countries. York in England, for example, is often touted as a place where Viking heritage is celebrated and it generates significant revenue for the city. I hope Waterford will benefit in a similar manner in the years ahead from the undoubtedly important find at Woodstown.

The job of infrastructural development needs to be separated from the archaeology role. This will be impossible if the Minister succeeds in appointing himself adjudicator on both counts, namely, as the custodian of archaeological heritage and the promoter of infrastructural development. It will be very difficult for him to maintain a position of referee when he has vested both roles in himself.

An issue raised by other Deputies provides a good example in this regard and I ask the Minister to comment on it at the end of the debate. If the Minister exercises his prerogative to forgo an appeal to An Bord Pleanála regarding Trim Castle, he will assume responsibility for the outcome of that process. The matter has caused tension and had repercussions in the local elections. As the Minister will be aware, a number of those elected in the Trim area strongly lobbied and campaigned against the decision to give permission for a hotel to be built adjacent to Trim Castle on the basis that it did not conform to proper planning.

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