Michael Lowry (Tipperary North, Independent)
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The Rock of Cashel is a complex of secular and religious structures of national and international importance. It is dramatically situated high above the surrounding plain. It dates from the 4th century AD when it was home to the kings of Munster and was associated with the confederate wars of the 17th century. The buildings include a 12th century Romanesque chapel, Cormac's Chapel, a cathedral, a round tower, a choral hall and a castle. Cormac's Chapel, built in 1127, highlights the significant influences that resulted from the tradition of ecclesiastics travelling throughout Europe and beyond. It incorporates German and English architectural influences, in particular, with Scandinavian decorative influences.

Scaffolding was erected in 2009 to allow conservation works at the 12th century Cormac's Chapel to take place. The chapel is one of the earliest and finest churches in Ireland and was built in the Romanesque style. It contains fresco paintings which are extremely rare in Ireland and its murals are an integral part of our art history. When the scaffolding was erected, it was referred to at an urban council meeting by Councillor Tom Wood as “an alarming mass of scaffolding." The OPW responded to his comments by stating, “It would be non-invasive to the building."The scaffolding around Cormac's Chapel has now been erected for over seven years. The OPW's comment is in stark contrast to comments made by it at its presentation to the former town council. At that presentation the council was told by the architects that the scaffolding would not be in place for any longer than four years.

We all understand the need to preserve and restore the fresco paintings in Cormac's Chapel and the importance of the work to conserve the unique Romanesque building. It must be a source of embarrassment that the project is now heading into its eighth year. I have strong reservations and believe the current project will echo what happened in the 1980s, when scaffolding was erected on the Romanesque chapel and remained in place for over 12 years.

The Rock of Cashel has been undergoing restoration works since 1974. The continuing works have effectively turned it into a partial building site since the 1970s. Although the Rock of Cashel has been on a tentative list for World Heritage Site status since 1992, no notable progress has been made in achieving this objective. Between the previous works on the Hall of the Vicars Choral and the unending works on Cormac's Chapel, the Rock of Cashel has effectively remained covered in scaffolding for 22 of the past 40 years. One must ask whether the scaffolding has become an impediment to achieving World Heritage Site status. I understand further works are to take place on the Vicars Choral chapel, possibly in 2016. It would make sense to complete the current works before any other project is commenced.

While the unsightly scaffolding is a visual obstacle facing the Rock of Cashel, there is another pressing issue directly linked with the future success of the rock that remains unresolved since 1959. It relates to the reinstating of what is known as the Rock Field as part of the overall Rock of Cashel site. The Rock Field encircles the Rock of Cashel monument. The Cashel Palace which includes the lands and the Rock Field is for sale. I ask he Minister and the OPW to enter into negotiations with the new purchaser of the Cashel Palace to bring about a resolution of this issue. The Rock of Cashel received 273,000 visitors in 2014. We thank and appreciate the management, staff, tour guides and maintenance staff who provide an unparalleled service for all visitors throughout the year.

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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The cathedral complex on the Rock of Cashel is one of Ireland's most important early mediaeval monuments and one of its components is Cormac's Chapel, situated on the south-east side of the main cathedral. It is not only one of the most significant early Romanesque buildings in the country, but it also contains fragments of an immensely important scheme of wall paintings that are practically unique in Ireland.

In recent years it became apparent that there was a significant problem at Cormac's Chapel. Despite a long programme of conservation treatment, the paintings continued to suffer deterioration as a result of the severely adverse environmental conditions in the building. As a result, a project was begun in 2001 to investigate and control the environmental conditions causing damage to the chapel and, in particular, the mediaeval wall paintings. The results of the initial study showed that the moisture levels in the building fabric and internal microclimate were extremely high as a result of rainwater penetration through the fabric and uncontrolled ventilation with external air. In short, the building was suffering from extreme damp penetration brought about by failure of the roof and the roof drainage system. Enclosure tests involving a reduction in the external ventilation demonstrated that the internal microclimate could effectively be stabilised, but because of the residual water in the building fabric the relative humidity remains extremely high, resulting in significant condensation and large levels of microbiological growth. This is reflected in green algal growth on the internal walls.

The results of all of the technical investigations demonstrated that while some of the conservation approaches had value, overall, the underlying causes of deterioration of the wall paintings were associated with both liquid water and water vapour and this needed to be tackled at source with a comprehensive building fabric intervention. The most serious damage was associated with liquid water, largely due to the failure to effectively remove rainwater from the chapel, with the result that a significant volume of water penetrated the building structure. This is primarily due to the complex design of the building and lack of any systematic rainwater disposal system. The condition of the building fabric, although structurally stable, was found to be extremely vulnerable to penetration of dispersed rainwater.

Roofed and enclosed scaffolding was erected over Cormac's Chapel in January 2010 in order to allow the building structure to dry and provide access to the roof and protection during the repair work. This was a highly complex operation, not only for structural reasons but also because of the very large volumes of rainwater that needed to be removed from the structure. Careful records of rainwater volumes have been kept by the Rock of Cashel works team throughout the project. In 2012, for example, it amounted to 126,750 litres, and in 2013, 113,200 litres. This provided confirmation of the very high volume of rainfall to which the chapel was subject, in addition to the complexities of successfully removing such a large volume of water from the building structure in the future.

In the period since the cover was erected on the building, extensive and continuous monitoring has taken place. In essence, this reveals that the building is drying out well but extremely slowly. There was an initial sharp decrease in most areas in the first six months and then a slower decrease in subsequent years. However, some areas of the croft appeared to have dried less well.

Artificial conservation ventilation undertaken during this period also showed a more significant effect on the internal micro-climate, causing a slow but cumulative reduction in air moisture content. However, this process is highly sensitive as any too-rapid change in micro-climatic conditions would potentially be very damaging to the paintings and the entire building must be monitored on an ongoing basis.

In tandem with the environmental monitoring, the OPW National Monuments Service is currently carrying out consolidation and repair of the sandstone roof. This entails removing the cement bedding mortar and the careful repair and replacement, where necessary, of damaged roof stones. The long-term rainwater disposal system is also being fashioned as part of the work. This will allow the removal of liquid water from the roof of the chapel safely for the future. Due to the complexity of the project, the OPW envisages that the scaffolding will remain in place for approximately the next 18 to 24 months.

In conclusion, I would like to make a few specific points in response to the Deputy's comments. The project could not, as the Deputy states, have run over its time-frame by four years since no definitive projection of project duration was ever made and even the speculation that did exist said that the work would take an absolute minimum of five years from its start on site in 2010. Second, the work at Cormac's Chapel is clearly at the forefront of conservation practice in Ireland. Lessons are being learned on this project which will serve to protect monuments all over the country in the future. This project is not, however, one that can be precisely planned to every last degree. As it is so novel and because the building is reacting so slowly to the ministrations of the technical team, it would have been impossible to speculate definitively in 2010 how long this project would take. Equally, I should reflect that if there is the slightest suspicion that we could damage the monument or these paintings in any way by rushing the project to its conclusion, we should exercise caution and not take that risk.

I also point out that, notwithstanding the fact that the presence of the scaffold on the Rock of Cashel is visually intrusive, it has not adversely impacted on visitor numbers. Visitor numbers have increased from 204,270 in 2010 to 272,503 last year. Additionally, the OPW guide management on site reports that it is not experiencing high levels of complaints in respect of the issue and indeed many visitors express keen interest in it and an appreciation of the effort being made by the Irish State to safeguard its heritage.

Michael Lowry (Tipperary North, Independent)
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The conservation architect to the project briefed the urban council in Cashel, particularly Councillor Tom Wood, and gave a commitment that the scaffolding would be in place for a maximum of five years. We are now into the eighth year. There are people in Tipperary who do not remember seeing the Rock of Cashel without scaffolding. That is how long it has been in place.

Nothing proved that the scaffolding is now almost as enduring as the Rock of Cashel itself than the visit two years ago by Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip. At that time, the people of Tipperary held their breath and thought that the scaffolding would surely come down but it did not. Many visitors on that weekend commented on the scaffolding. Many people who comment on the scaffolding and the fact that there is no accessibility to Cormac's Chapel are visitors from the US, Germany and the UK who feel that they have paid to see something and have left without seeing it entirely.

Whatever the explanations offered by the architectural gurus in the OPW, there is no excuse for the length of time taken to complete this project. If this was a private project or the Rock of Cashel was a private building, somebody would be facing bankruptcy. We need the Minister of State to call a halt, take the scaffolding down and give the Rock of Cashel back to the people of Tipperary and the rest of Ireland. Will the Minister ask the Minister of State to convey to the OPW the need to give these works priority; provide the necessary resources, personnel and skills that are required; and fund and expedite a conclusion to these works? Everybody understands the sensitive nature and the delicacy of the work involved but there are many people who cannot understand why it has been running over for so long and why we do not have a compact programme to conclude it.

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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I hear what the Deputy is saying. I have remarked on occasion when I have passed through Cashel that the scaffolding seems have been there for a very long time so I was curious to know what the story was. I will undertake to discuss this matter with the Minister of State. I will be seeing him in the next couple of days and I will of course mention the fact that this was raised here. I might ask him to contact the Deputy directly about it.