Ivana Bacik (Dublin Bay South, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I am conscious that we are speaking to the grouping of amendments. Amendment No. 38, tabled by the Labour Party, is in keeping with the spirit of the other amendments, which seek to ensure maximum protection for heritage. The general object of the Bill is to update the National Monuments Acts and ensure strong protections for historic and archaeological heritage. Amendment No. 38, in particular, seeks to ensure there is public access to national monuments and other historic heritage sites. Whatever protections are put in place in the Bill, the public value thereof is limited if the monuments and sites are not accessible to members of the public. If they are kept hidden from public access and view, there is a question over the extent to which people can experience their own heritage. We are conscious that public access can bring its own problems, including the need to safeguard monuments, landscapes and sites from excessive interference and possible damage. There are also legitimate concerns among private landowners. Through amendment No. 38, we are seeking to ensure the principle that reasonable public access is a public good is enshrined in law and that there could be detailed regulatory provision regarding how competing interests would be reconciled and how this public good would be best protected. The key point we wish to ensure is that the statement of principle is there and that section 3(1) would also provide that a person performing a function under the Act would recognise and take due account of principles, to include that historic heritage is a non-renewable resource of great cultural and scientific importance and that there would be a presumption in favour of the protection in situof historic heritage. We wish to add to those listed principles the principle that reasonable public access, subject to appropriate controls and conditions, is a public good and the promotion of such reasonable public access would be the responsibility of "the Minister, the Board, the Council and each local authority".

Colleagues have spoken about historic sites in their areas. I recently visited Castletown House in Celbridge with the local Labour Party councillor, Angela Feeney, who has been very active in the campaign to preserve access to the house. It is a magnificent site of national heritage and there should be no restriction of access to allow people to enjoy it. Local people told me how much of a lifeline it was to them during Covid in particular. The idea that access would be restricted is unacceptable to the local community. We need a provision in the Bill such as that proposed in amendment No. 38 to ensure this principle is respected and there is a duty and responsibility placed at all levels of governance to recognise that not just the preservation of national monuments and heritage sites, but also access to them, is a public good. That is the essence of the amendment. The other amendments in the grouping are in keeping with the spirit of the principle we are seeking to secure.

See this speech in context