Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The Hill of Tara is full of archaeological monuments. It has historical links with the 1798 rising and with Daniel O'Connell's monster meetings as well. The Minister mentioned the number of people who have visited it. The figure of 200,000 is conservative. It is probably closer to 250,000. There are at least 1,000 buses travelling to the Hill of Tara every year. It pains me to say this because it is literally four miles from my house, but currently the Hill of Tara is in a mess. It is really difficult to find parking at the space. A field is being used for parking at the moment. Buses find it extremely hard to navigate the area. The hill itself is increasingly mucky. The rath on which the Lia Fáil currently stands is flooded throughout the whole of the year. There are no pathways of any sort. There are some archaeological worries around the introduction of pathways onto the hill itself, but the ground is currently being torn up by people. There must be extra focus on the outside of the OPW site because there are planning issues. There are issues with the lack of capacity, toilets, shops and restaurants, and I would ask the Minister to take a more comprehensive view on how this can be fixed.

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