Pádraic McCormack (Galway West, Fine Gael)

I welcome that. The Minister said that during the drafting of the Bill, he became aware that the issue required some amendments to the national monuments code, and the Bill includes those amendments. The main purpose of the Bill is to re-enact section 14 of the National Monuments Act to provide a one-tier consent process for works on national monuments where the consent of the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government is sought for such works.

The Bill also provides that the National Museum will be consulted when such consent is sought and I seek clarification on that point. If the National Museum must be consulted, is that another process that will have to be followed after the Minister deliberates on this? Certain approved road schemes with an IAA form are exempt from providing a section 14 consent on the basis of the EIA consent procedure, which will have made recommendations for archaeological considerations. However, the Bill gives the Minister further powers to issue directions on how archaeological excavation works are to proceed. Those sections of the Bill confer extraordinary powers and, while this Minister would not abuse his powers in that way, we must be careful, in adopting the legislation, that a future Minister does not have that opportunity.

The Bill clarifies the transfer of functions between different Ministers and the Commissioners of Public Works under different statutory instruments. The Bill will give discretion to the Minister to grant consent or otherwise and to issue directions in respect of a national monument, notwithstanding that such consent or direction may involve injury to, interference with or even harm to a national monument. These are far-reaching powers for the Minister.

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