Dinny McGinley (Donegal South West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for raising the matter and I assure Deputy Ferris that her interest has been taken on board and acknowledged, given that she represents the constituency. I fully agree with Deputy Dowds that the monastic complex at Glendalough is one of the foremost national monuments in the country. It attracts huge numbers of visitors to Wicklow. The quality of its setting, together with its cultural and heritage significance, is instrumental in bringing many people to Ireland in the first place. It is a marvellous expression of the heritage and history of which Irish people are rightly proud.

In March 2010 Ireland forwarded a new tentative list of world heritage sites to UNESCO on the basis of the recommendations of an expert advisory group established by the then Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government and of an extensive public consultation process. The list contained seven new sites, including, as a single unit, the early medieval monastic sites at Clonmacnoise, Durrow, Glendalough, Inis Cealtra, Kells and Monasterboice. Glendalough is rightly there because of its outstanding archaeological value, not to mention its great natural beauty. It is one of the most visited sites in the country and is close to the Wicklow National Park.

The site is protected as a national monument and it sits proudly in the company of the other early Christian monasteries included with it for consideration by UNESCO. These sites have been chosen as a representative sample of the best of the early medieval monastic sites in Ireland whose outstanding universal value can be shown by any criteria one cares to mention. They embody the culture of the early church and they played a crucial role in educational and artistic development throughout western Europe in the so-called Dark Ages. They respond to the objectives promoted by UNESCO, in that they bear witness to a cultural tradition that has partly disappeared, as well as being outstanding examples of a particular type of monument. The sites form part of a landscape which illustrates significant stages in human history and are tangibly associated with living traditions, ideas and beliefs.

The importance of these monasteries as holy places, proto cities, places of trade and craftsmanship cannot be overestimated and I hope that they will become world heritage sites in the fullness of time. It is an onerous task to progress applications for world heritage site inscription and it is not something my Department can achieve on its own. While only the State can propose a site from the tentative list for inscription as a world heritage site, it is critical for local communities to become fully engaged in the process. The impetus for developing a new application should come from the community itself, rather than from the top down. An appreciation of the potential benefits to a community of having a world heritage site in its midst, along with an understanding of the obligations and measure that are necessary to protect its status, can best be gained through direct participation in the preparation of the application for inscription.

Local authorities should also play a more proactive role. They have the resources and the expertise to assist local communities to focus their engagement and to provide the necessary leadership where appropriate. This is in addition their more formal pre-existing role of ensuring county development plans and local area plans include policies and objectives to protect these sites.

A positive development that will provide practical support for community participation in heritage initiatives, including world heritage, is the fact that new sources of funding are becoming available to community groups that are not accessible to State agencies. Important changes to the regulations governing Leader funded projects have just been agreed between my Department and the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government. Under the new rules, which I understand will be issued shortly, it will be possible for community groups to apply for Leader money for projects involving the development of historical or archaeological monuments for the benefit of the community itself or for world heritage status.

I cannot overemphasise the importance of the role of local communities in protecting and promoting our heritage and in advancing nominations for inscription on the world heritage list. The resources are being put in place to make this sort of community involvement a genuinely realistic proposition. For our part, the Department will do all that we can to guide and assist the nominations process as expeditiously as we can. I look forward to the Glendalough nomination making progress through this route and eventually to full world heritage status.

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