Steven Matthews (Wicklow, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I commend the Minister of State, Deputy Noonan, on the work he and his officials have done on the Bill. Throughout the House it is recognised that we have in the Minister of State with responsibility for heritage somebody who is deeply committed and has spent a lifetime trying to protect heritage, cultural heritage and nature. He is now doing this throughout the country in his role as Minister of State and did so previously in his role on Kilkenny County Council where he was Cathaoirleach for a spell and served a long time as a member.

Kilkenny is a good example of city that recognises and promotes the historical and cultural attributes that attract people through tourism to those towns. The people who live there also feel this because attachment to our culture, heritage and history and to where we have come from is inherently deep within us. We see the markers along the road in standing stones, cairns and dolmens. We do not know much about them but they are the scattered mile posts of our history and heritage. What the Bill strives to do, which is quite important, is to bring together all of the registers we have. People have been working hard for years in an area that probably has not got the attention it deserved in trying to preserve and protect our cultural, archaeological and historical heritage.

The Minister of State, Deputy O'Donnell's home city of Limerick has no shortage of these attributes, as I noted on a visit quite recently. It is only right at this point to recognise the work done by the OPW on many of these sites. My county of Wicklow has no shortage of attractions. I see the work done by the OPW. It gets a lot of criticism for the work it does on river clearance but we will set that aside for the moment. It is very important to recognise that the restoration work it carries out is of the highest quality. One only has to walk around the Houses of the Oireachtas to see the work done by the OPW experts in restoration and refurbishment. Sometimes we are in such a hurry that we rush by and we do not notice these things. The same could be said of the wealth of archaeological and historical heritage. It is wealth and we have to see it as such. This is extremely valuable for our cultural heritage.

How do we encourage more people to be conscious of it, to protect it, be aware of it and value it? We need education. Sometimes saying that we need to educate people can sound a bit condescending. We need to inform people. We need to advertise these places. We need to explain what these artefacts that we see around the country mean, why they are there and what they meant at the time to the people who built them. We need to strike a balance in this. We do not want something to become so popular and so visited that we end up damaging the site. We need to respect these sites. Many of the sites are on private land and therefore access is slightly restricted. This gives a certain level of protection. It denies people access but it provides a certain level of protection. We need to strike a balance on this. I think it was Part 8 of the general scheme and I do not know what part it is in the Bill because I have not had a chance to go through it line by line but there is a capacity for research projects for educational purposes. This is incredibly important for us to do.

I spoke about County Wicklow. Somewhere that has always struck me is Glendalough. It is steeped in historical significance with St. Kevin's association with it. There are pilgrim walks there. I am conscious that in the planning Bill - and I know I am straying into other legislation but I ask the Minister of State to bear with me - we need to be careful that we do not restrict access. We need to be careful that we maintain rights of access and rights of way wherever possible. This is something I am looking at the planning Bill.

The pilgrim way I mentioned brings people up to St. Kevin's church in Hollywood. There has been some absolutely fantastic restoration work done there, supported by the Heritage Council. It has a key role to play in this. I was at the launch of its strategy recently at the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland, another striking building and a perfect place to launch the Heritage Council's strategy. If we go a little further west in Wicklow there are Baltinglass Hill and Kilranelagh. I was always aware of Baltinglass Hill from going through county development plans but not of Kilranelagh until recently. There was a planning application and I was approached by a number of people concerned about a wind development in Kilranelagh. At first I thought it was that people did not want the wind farm going in but I looked at it in detail. Work is being done at Baltinglass Hill following the discovery of a very significant hill fort complex in this part of west Wicklow. Much of it lay undiscovered for many years. I went down there and I have been educated by people in the area who live there and are aware of it and by archaeologists. It is an incredible complex. I invite the Minister of State and the Minister of State, Deputy Noonan, to come down at some point to visit it. It is probably on a par with anything we have in this country and I include the Hill of Tara. I would put it on a level with Stonehenge. It is a site that has lain undiscovered for so long. Lidar technology was employed there recently. This uses light technology and revealed many structures that had previously lain undiscovered. This is probably the most significant hill fort complex in the country. It is a great opportunity. We do not want it to be a massive tourist attraction but we do want people to be aware of it and respect it and know it is there. It could probably be part of a walking route along the lines of the south Leinster route. I hope to work with the Minister on trying to promote this and seeing how we can bring to fruition.

I should probably have covered some of what we had in the pre-legislative scrutiny but I got caught up. This is an area about which I feel very passionately. When chairing the committee sessions I got very caught up in the statements of the witnesses and the knowledge they brought and the passion they have for it. Many of us feel this. When we get an understanding and we have exposure to it, it is deeply important to us. I am very happy that legislation has been brought forward to protect, preserve and look after valuable heritage.

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