Pat Gallagher (Donegal South West, Fianna Fail)

If we accepted this amendment it would remove section 6 completely. I will give the background to this situation. Section 6 amends the provision in section 22 of the principal Act relating to the discovery of archaeological objects by removing the requirement to report such objects found by a person in pursuance of a consent granted or directions issued by the Minister under section 14 or in connection with an approved road development. In other words, a procedure will already be in place to deal with archaeological objects which are found in this type of situation. We must differentiate between that and finding an artefact without a consent being granted, which happens regularly when developments are carried out. It happened very recently in my constituency, in Liscooley near Castlefin, where a responsible farmer was carrying out some developments. His son suddenly found some artefacts and bones and, as is their duty, they reported it within three days, although not everyone would necessarily do so. If they had been carrying out excavation works and expected to find artefacts they would possibly have applied for a licence or had a direction issued by the Minister. However, that was not the situation, so we must differentiate.

The intent of section 6 is to prevent overlapping in reporting requirements by removing the necessity to report every single discovery of an archaeological object. It is not possible to accept the amendment without undoing this effort to make the procedure as uncomplicated as possible. If we did that we would be adding another layer of bureaucracy which would create further problems for responsible people who apply for a licence which is not granted. It would mean they would have to report every single artefact as they found it or within a number of days of finding it. This is an all-embracing provision to allow those people to report at the end of the excavation.

If one finds an artefact one has a legal responsibility to report it within three days of finding it. In short, this gives an exemption to the requirement under section 26 for licence holders and extends the provision to those following ministerial directions or conditions of consent.

Senator Bannon's intentions are good. However, it would add a further layer of bureaucracy and would create further difficulties. If the amendment was accepted and every find had to be reported within a matter of days, particularly by those who have consent, it might deter people from doing so. We should not try to do that because the Bill seeks to simplify matters.

I wish to make it clear that the Minister accepts the advice of his officials in the vast majority of cases. However, the buck stops with the Minister who is responsible to the Oireachtas.