Malcolm Noonan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I refer to the points raised by Deputy Browne and, as I said earlier, it is not the case that we have not taken on board the amendments brought forward by the Opposition. We have improved and used the concerns brought forward by those amendments and put them in with their own amendments. The majority of the amendments we are putting forward are to give effect to concerns and issues which have been brought forward on Committee Stage by Deputies. We have, with all due respect, given effect to that in trying to take on board the issues raised by Deputies in the past. That is largely what we are bringing forward here this evening.

Specifically, in respect of Cashel, the Deputy raised the issue of the surrounding area and Cashel is an important international site and it enjoys a very strong level of protection.

Deputy Ó Snodaigh raised the issue again of the Church Temporalities Commission. That definition needs to be updated following an earlier proposed amendment and if I may read this out again:

Reference to that Commission and its Report must be made in the Bill given that Chapter 13 of Part 2 addresses the legal standing of certain historic burial grounds which were once in the ownership of that Commission. The definition in Part 2 allows for a somewhat less lengthy title to be used in the Bill when referring to the Commission than the legal title it had under the relevant 19th century legislation, [that is just to aid] readers of the Bill.

I thank the Leas-Cheann Comhairle.

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