Victor Boyhan (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am just coming to that. I would also say Dundrum as well. Last week, I received a substantial number of boxes of architectural drawings and pictures relating to Dún Laoghaire which were done by the late Mr. Stephen Devaney. I have been in touch with the council and, if it will not be deposited with the council, it will be deposited in Merrion Square at the National Inventory of Architectural Heritage. It is an amazing amount of work. Much of it, strangely enough, deals also with Dundrum, Kilgobbin and thereabouts. These are photographs, etchings and drawings. I acknowledge the work of An Taisce in south Dublin, not just in Dún Laoghaire, which did a great deal of this work. It is a valuable piece of work and timely. The National Inventory of Architectural Heritage might like to look at it.

I thank the Minister of State for attending. I am trying to maintain the focus. There has been an inventory of architectural heritage carried out in many local authority areas. There is merit in having it. Outside of Dublin and Cork, Dún Laoghaire would have one of the largest percentages of protected structures, and rightly so, because they are unique and are worth protecting. We have to make progress, at the same time, and we have to develop and move forward.

We can cherish the past and mind our architectural past while also being progressive enough to look for imaginative synergies and solutions to develop our towns and villages. I hope to keep our collective focus on it, to work on it and maybe to get some sort of measure as to when it will happen. This information is important because it will act as a toolkit in many ways to informing decisions about planning.