Results 6,821-6,840 of 9,814 for speaker:Steven Matthews

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: General Scheme of the Monuments and Archaeological Heritage Bill: Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage (3 Feb 2022)

Steven Matthews: I ask the witnesses to try to keep their opening statements to approximately five minutes. It will help us. We can return to anything in the statements that is not read into the record when we get to the question-and-answer session.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: General Scheme of the Monuments and Archaeological Heritage Bill: Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage (3 Feb 2022)

Steven Matthews: I thank Dr. Johnson. To answer her comment that LAAN would welcome the opportunity to submit more detailed comments, that option is open to everybody who attends because sometimes witnesses, after they have left a meeting, think of something that they might want to furnish to the committee. I assure everyone that we would find that very helpful. I do not know if the addendum was sent to...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: General Scheme of the Monuments and Archaeological Heritage Bill: Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage (3 Feb 2022)

Steven Matthews: I thank Mr. Swan. We will now move to questions from members. I forgot to mention at the start of the meeting that Deputy Duffy sends his apologies as he is unable to attend today.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: General Scheme of the Monuments and Archaeological Heritage Bill: Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage (3 Feb 2022)

Steven Matthews: The second question-----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: General Scheme of the Monuments and Archaeological Heritage Bill: Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage (3 Feb 2022)

Steven Matthews: I am sorry to interrupt Dr. Clinton, but I have to-----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: General Scheme of the Monuments and Archaeological Heritage Bill: Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage (3 Feb 2022)

Steven Matthews: It is all relevant, but we are up to nine minutes. I can only keep it to seven minutes. I have no doubt-----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: General Scheme of the Monuments and Archaeological Heritage Bill: Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage (3 Feb 2022)

Steven Matthews: I thank the Senator. I have to give everybody seven minutes. It means everybody gets a chance to answer. Senator Boyhan has nine minutes. I thank him for pointing that out; I said we had gone over nine minutes.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: General Scheme of the Monuments and Archaeological Heritage Bill: Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage (3 Feb 2022)

Steven Matthews: Absolutely, we will. It is an important point, as is the recommendation. If everybody sticks to seven minutes, I will have a free round at the end. If everybody assists me with that, we will have a free-flowing meeting.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: General Scheme of the Monuments and Archaeological Heritage Bill: Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage (3 Feb 2022)

Steven Matthews: I apologise for interrupting, but I must advise members that if they spend four or five minutes asking questions it does not leave enough time for the witnesses to give a substantial answer. If members would stick to direct questions, we would get through a lot more. Time permitting, we will have a second round and we can go into the issues in more detail. I ask members to try to assist me...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: General Scheme of the Monuments and Archaeological Heritage Bill: Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage (3 Feb 2022)

Steven Matthews: Absolutely, but I think we will have time. I can bring the Senator back in later and we can deal with it.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: General Scheme of the Monuments and Archaeological Heritage Bill: Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage (3 Feb 2022)

Steven Matthews: I accept these are all important questions. Could I bring Dr. Greene in on that point? Having visited Waterford and Kilkenny, those two cities, to my eye, have preserved well many of their archeological and heritage aspects. I know very little about this. I have no expertise in this area. To my uninformed eye, this looks good. How does the preservation of a site or artefact and...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: General Scheme of the Monuments and Archaeological Heritage Bill: Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage (3 Feb 2022)

Steven Matthews: Does Mr. Lumley from An Taisce or Dr. Johnson want to come in on that point? Heads 8 and 9 were referred to. Public knowledge and understanding of these sites will help us preserve them together with an understanding of why we need to protect them without having to rely on penalties or charging people. How do we preserve, protect and not damage the integrity of sites but maintain interest...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: General Scheme of the Monuments and Archaeological Heritage Bill: Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage (3 Feb 2022)

Steven Matthews: I thank Mr. Lumley for that. Dr. Johnson indicated she would like to come in on this point.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: General Scheme of the Monuments and Archaeological Heritage Bill: Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage (3 Feb 2022)

Steven Matthews: I thank Dr. Johnson for that. Mr. Swan indicated he would like to come in on that.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: General Scheme of the Monuments and Archaeological Heritage Bill: Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage (3 Feb 2022)

Steven Matthews: Where somebody discovers a monument or something of interest, who makes the ultimate decision whether that is to be preserved on site, by record or taken away and-----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: General Scheme of the Monuments and Archaeological Heritage Bill: Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage (3 Feb 2022)

Steven Matthews: I will have to interrupt Mr. Swan as we are over the allocated seven minutes. I note Dr. Clinton also wanted to come in on that point. I hope we can return to it in a later round of questions. I cannot continue on it now as I must bring in Senator Boyhan.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: General Scheme of the Monuments and Archaeological Heritage Bill: Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage (3 Feb 2022)

Steven Matthews: An important follow-on question that we might come back to is how often that advisory council would be called on each year. In Dr. Clinton's experience, how busy would they be and how well resourced would they have to be? We will come back to that question at the end. I call Senator Moynihan.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: General Scheme of the Monuments and Archaeological Heritage Bill: Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage (3 Feb 2022)

Steven Matthews: We might bring in Dr. Johnson on the local authority resources aspect as well.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: General Scheme of the Monuments and Archaeological Heritage Bill: Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage (3 Feb 2022)

Steven Matthews: I call Dr. Greene.