Patrick O'Donovan (Limerick County, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for his question. As he states, the Office of Public Works is responsible for the maintenance and operation of a defined list of approximately 700 sites in the State. Some of these include properties like Newgrange, Kilmainham Gaol and Dublin Castle, which are well known and visited by significant numbers of international tourists every year. However, most of the locations managed by the OPW are not as prominent and are located across the country, many in rural locations. The sites managed by the OPW are national monuments in the main and there are also certain prominent historical properties. Within the general Cherrywood area identified in the question, the OPW has one national monument site only, which is Monkstown Castle, in its care.

As an executive agency with the very specific remit I have described, OPW has no responsibility more generally for heritage sites, historic buildings, monuments or artifacts that lie outside of the 700 listed locations and which are, therefore, not in its direct care. Policy matters more generally, including protection measures around Ireland's heritage properties nationally, legislation, enforcement of breaches of the National Monuments Acts and the response to planning applications near listed historic sites is the responsibility of the Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, soon to be the Department of housing, local government and heritage, and the OPW has no direct role in these matters.

The OPW heritage services has not been directly involved or consulted in the creation of the Cherrywood strategic development zone and has not been assigned any specific responsibilities or duties within planning law arising from it. The OPW is not responsible at a national level for the protection of heritage, generally, and we are instead focused solely on sites and priorities within our remit. Previously, the Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht had responsibility for addressing the protection of Ireland's cultural assets more broadly. The Department's national monuments service has been unclear, however, in recent days about its specific roles and powers at Cherrywood and refused last week to take this parliamentary question from us. I have also been unsuccessful in getting it disallowed arising from the fact there is no function for the Office of Public Works. It is a double-whammy for Deputy Devlin.

Given our lack of responsibility in this area, the response to the question is relatively bare, unfortunately, and I have not been able to find out who, if anybody, is responsible for addressing heritage concerns in this area. I assume in the absence of other information, in the normal course, the Department dealing with housing will continue to hold this function. Although I have scant information, I expect the protection of heritage and other vital assets to be addressed in planning measures to be applied at Cherrywood. However, I can find no categoric information to that effect and the people who should know are not clear on the subject. That is of no benefit to the Deputy.

I suggest in these circumstances that the Minister would be circumspect about who exactly has responsibility for heritage protection. When the reconfiguration of the new Department is finished, I will endeavour to find out who is responsible for this, if anybody. It may even be the local authority but I do not know. We will try to find out and assist the Deputy.

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