Josepha Madigan (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The heritage officer programme is co-ordinated and funded by the Heritage Council and the heritage officers are local authority employees. Our primary channel of communication with the heritage officers is through the Heritage Council. The Deputy may well be disposed to let the Heritage Council know of the gap in Carlow in heritage officer provision which I am sure is badly needed. It may be something the Heritage Council might be interested in addressing.

My Department has been in close contact with the Heritage Council through the development of the consultation process and we have been in direct contact with the Heritage Officers' Network as well.

A meeting is happening tomorrow, the purpose of which is to discuss the practical arrangements for the consultation. There are major monuments in Carlow such as Carlow Castle, the high cross at Nurney and the prehistoric portal tomb at Brown's Hill. There are also monuments that span the prehistoric period, from the fourth millennium BC through the high point of early Christian art in the ninth and tenth centuries and into the key historical events of the Norman invasion of Ireland. There is a lot of heritage in Carlow that will be worth considering.

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